Whether Guan Qi was an introvert or an extrovert was a subject of much debate among his friends. Several people had asked him directly, only to receive different answers. After he passed, as everyone gathered together, they realised this was a fact that simply could not be settled. Recalling his…
On 4 April last year, Foodthink published a “Collection of Deleted Articles”. Since then, whenever a piece was censored, my colleagues would share a bitter internal joke: “Next year’s 404 collection already has another entry.” But the 404s of these two years have not been the same. In 2024, most…
Having left my small village, where every household practised fermentation, for too long, and having drifted for so long through the uncertainties of city life, I lost a part of my life’s vitality. This is something I only recently realised. For many years, “fermentation” was nothing more than a strange…
Foodthink says Why would a girl from the north, who had never even seen a sugarcane stalk, head south to grow it? Why would a short-video content creator be mocked by farmers? Why would a PhD candidate refer to themselves as a primary school pupil? Why would a tea research…
Foodthink’s Perspective In 1948, the Central Government decided to import tractors from the Soviet Union to reclaim land and farm the Great Northern Wilderness (Beidahuang). Simultaneously, to train operators, a tractor training course was established at the Beian State Farm in Heilongjiang. Eighteen-year-old Liang Jun was the only woman among…
Last April, we moved our Hangzhou studio to the ground floor of an old residential estate with a certain vintage charm, which gave us a small courtyard. There is a strip of earth in the yard, and the south-facing row gets wonderful sunlight. Although it is only a tiny patch…
On 7 February 2026, after a two-year hiatus, ‘Market Takeover’ returned, this time upgraded into Foodthink’s annual meeting. Over the course of 12 hours, we used the act of selling vegetables as a way to dive deep into the food and farming system. Eight members of Foodthink transformed from consumers…
Looking back at 2025, what news about food and agriculture left the deepest impression on you? Was it the struggle to harvest crops amidst the relentless rains of North China, the delivery platform wars, the heated debates over pre-prepared meals that nearly sparked violence, or…? Over the past year, Foodthink,…
As I put pen to paper, it is the second day of the twelfth lunar month in the Year of the Snake—the solar term of Major Cold, and the fourth day of the ‘Fourth Nine’. There is an old saying, ‘During the third and fourth nine-day periods, one walks on…
Attention all departments: Foodthink’s ‘Occupy Jishì 3.0’ and Annual Meeting Special Project is now officially underway! From 10:00 to 22:00 on Saturday, 7 February, we will be taking over Jishì, the Beijing Organic Farmers Market community store in Sanyuanqiao. This is more than just the source of ingredients for our…
