Platform economies, food delivery workers, and urban consumption behavior.
Since early June, a video titled “From a City Besieged by Waste to Not Enough Waste to Burn: China’s Speed Leaves the West Bewildered” has spread rapidly online. The notion of simply tossing unsightly rubbish into incinerators for a thorough burn, then harnessing the released energy for electricity, has left…
Recently, someone quipped that McDonald’s has transformed into an unfeeling ‘middle-aged’ entity, having traded its childlike wonder and youthful vigour for the drab routine of a canteen catering to wage labourers. Yet in truth, McDonald’s has never been short of such workers. I found myself genuinely taken aback, and suspect…
Foodthink Says Another 618 Shopping Festival is upon us. After the thrill of endless buying and unboxing, have you ever stopped to think about where all that plastic packaging we so casually sweep out the door actually ends up? “Eating well” is not just about nourishing ourselves; it is also…
In 2023, I arrived in Melbourne, the specialty coffee capital, on an Australian Working Holiday Visa to work and study. However, due to my lack of experience and the sheer number of young workers in the city, I found I couldn’t make ends meet on part-time café shifts alone. I…
I. Plastic as the Framework of Modern Life Could a modern person get by without plastic? When an American female author prepared to take on the challenge of avoiding plastic for a full day, she soon realised: modern life is virtually impossible without it. Within ten seconds of waking up,…
I am someone who succumbed to pressure; I couldn’t keep playing this game of racing between skyscrapers. Now, I write my story in the hope that as a “failed player” still in flight, I can identify from those past “failures” the things that truly made me feel lonely and depressed,…
The delivery market clash between JD.com and Meituan is in full swing, with the most conspicuous battleground being the strategic tug-of-war over riders’ social security. On 19 February 2025, JD.com was the first to announce it would cover the full social insurance and housing fund contributions for its full-time riders.…
Foodthink’s Take In the previous edition of our “Eat Well” column, dozens of Foodthink readers shared their “moments they wanted to avoid takeout”. Many expressed their frustration; although there are times they are tired of takeout, the frantic pace of work, a lack of culinary skill, or poor kitchen facilities…
Qingming Festival is a time for ancestral worship and tomb-sweeping. This year it falls on4 April, which just happens to be404. This naturally brings to mind articles that have been marked404 not found. Last year, Foodthink saw several of its articles ‘disappear’ on its WeChat Official Account—the highest number to…
Foodthink Says “Humanity’s unsustainable production and consumption patterns are pushing the planet to the brink of disaster,” is the opening line used by the United Nations to introduce Zero Waste Day, observed annually on 30 March. For urban residents in China, the single-use plastic waste accumulating in daily life is…
