China’s art and entertainment scenes are in flux — emerging voices, boundary-blurring practices, and aesthetics as politics. Together, they form a sharp lens on shifting cultural currents, which we’ll be highlighting throughout the month.
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In China, death comes with a shopping list.
In Case It Rains in Heaven by Kurt Tong documents the paper offerings Chinese families burn for the dead, from ghost money to Gucci bags, paper iPhones to miniature mansions. The offerings change with the times, because love does too.
The photos themselves were printed on joss paper, then burned. The ritual completed the work.
Feeling kind of tender writing about this.
#radii #radiimedia #清明节 #afterlife #chineseculture
In China, death comes with a shopping list.
In Case It Rains in Heaven by Kurt Tong documents the paper offerings Chinese families burn for the dead, from ghost money to Gucci bags, paper iPhones to miniature mansions. The offerings change with the times, because love does too.
The photos themselves were printed on joss paper, then burned. The ritual completed the work.
Feeling kind of tender writing about this.
#radii #radiimedia #清明节 #afterlife #chineseculture
...
This Saturday is Qingming Festival: China‘s annual tomb-sweeping holiday. And someone is burning AI chatbots for the dead. The customer service exchange that explained why has 200,000 people in their feelings.
For over a thousand years, Chinese families have burned paper offerings: money, clothes, furniture, for their ancestors. The belief is simple: fire carries objects from this world to the next. The dead receive and deserve comfort too.
Chinese Gen Z didn’t abandon the ritual. They updated the inventory. A Taobao shop called 超现实手作坊 (”Surrealist Craft Studio“) makes handcrafted paper replicas of iPhones, Switch consoles, and massage bathtubs. This year, they added AI large language models. When a customer asked whether their great-grandmother, who only spoke in dialect, could actually use one, the shop replied in full sincerity: ”Modern AI can recognize many dialects and even vague expressions. We believe she will find her own way to enjoy it.“
The exchange went viral. But the absurdity wasn‘t the point...the earnestness underneath it was. The shop owner quit a $55K/year e-commerce exec job after his father died suddenly at 30. He did the math, went home, learned papercraft, and started building things he wished he could send somewhere.
China’s youth aren‘t modernizing burial offerings as a joke. They’re doing it because the gap between the living and the dead has started to feel like a connectivity problem, and an AI model wrapped in paper is, in its own way, a care package for someone you‘re not sure can still receive your signal.
What would you burn?
#radii #radiimedia #QingmingFestival #ChineseInternetCulture #PaperOfferings
This Saturday is Qingming Festival: China‘s annual tomb-sweeping holiday. And someone is burning AI chatbots for the dead. The customer service exchange that explained why has 200,000 people in their feelings.
For over a thousand years, Chinese families have burned paper offerings: money, clothes, furniture, for their ancestors. The belief is simple: fire carries objects from this world to the next. The dead receive and deserve comfort too.
Chinese Gen Z didn’t abandon the ritual. They updated the inventory. A Taobao shop called 超现实手作坊 (”Surrealist Craft Studio“) makes handcrafted paper replicas of iPhones, Switch consoles, and massage bathtubs. This year, they added AI large language models. When a customer asked whether their great-grandmother, who only spoke in dialect, could actually use one, the shop replied in full sincerity: ”Modern AI can recognize many dialects and even vague expressions. We believe she will find her own way to enjoy it.“
The exchange went viral. But the absurdity wasn‘t the point...the earnestness underneath it was. The shop owner quit a $55K/year e-commerce exec job after his father died suddenly at 30. He did the math, went home, learned papercraft, and started building things he wished he could send somewhere.
China’s youth aren‘t modernizing burial offerings as a joke. They’re doing it because the gap between the living and the dead has started to feel like a connectivity problem, and an AI model wrapped in paper is, in its own way, a care package for someone you‘re not sure can still receive your signal.
What would you burn?
#radii #radiimedia #QingmingFestival #ChineseInternetCulture #PaperOfferings
...
No one warned us the tea bag would become a collector’s item.
The tea bag was created in 1908 by a New York merchant as a way to carry tea samples. Customers started steeping the whole pouch by mistake, and the tea bag was born. China had been drinking tea for thousands of years, but putting it in a paper sachet? That was an American idea. When it finally arrived in China, Chinese designers got involved. Emperor-shaped sachets designed to look like they‘re soaking in your cup. Fish made of white gauze, sold in clusters, too pretty to untangle. A tea bag disguised as a Photoshop file, with ”everything I wanted to say to you“ printed on the back in the font of a hidden layer. Even a shoe insole...shaped like a tea bag, hung outside the sneaker so your kicks smell like a tea house.
But this isn’t really a story about tea bags. It‘s about how Chinese Youth is processing traditional culture through the logic of 文创 (cultural creative goods): miniaturizing it, packaging it beautifully, photographing it, and choosing not to consume it. A new form of cultural ownership: you hold the aesthetic of a ritual without performing it. The tea bag is just the lightest possible container for that idea.
They’re almost too pretty to steep.
Swipe to see the ones we‘d definitely never brew >>>
#radii #radiimedia #chinesedesign #teatok #chineseyouthculture
No one warned us the tea bag would become a collector’s item.
The tea bag was created in 1908 by a New York merchant as a way to carry tea samples. Customers started steeping the whole pouch by mistake, and the tea bag was born. China had been drinking tea for thousands of years, but putting it in a paper sachet? That was an American idea. When it finally arrived in China, Chinese designers got involved. Emperor-shaped sachets designed to look like they‘re soaking in your cup. Fish made of white gauze, sold in clusters, too pretty to untangle. A tea bag disguised as a Photoshop file, with ”everything I wanted to say to you“ printed on the back in the font of a hidden layer. Even a shoe insole...shaped like a tea bag, hung outside the sneaker so your kicks smell like a tea house.
But this isn’t really a story about tea bags. It‘s about how Chinese Youth is processing traditional culture through the logic of 文创 (cultural creative goods): miniaturizing it, packaging it beautifully, photographing it, and choosing not to consume it. A new form of cultural ownership: you hold the aesthetic of a ritual without performing it. The tea bag is just the lightest possible container for that idea.
They’re almost too pretty to steep.
Swipe to see the ones we‘d definitely never brew >>>
#radii #radiimedia #chinesedesign #teatok #chineseyouthculture
...
A woman in Qingdao kept her 100,000+ RMB worth of gold jewelry in the freezer. Next to frozen meat and ice cream. For two years.
She said it’s her “safest hiding spot”, easy to access, discreet, and no one thinks to check the frozen peas.
The internet is divided. One side calls it genius: gold doesn’t freeze, thieves check drawers, not freezers, and bank safety boxes are a hassle. The other side sees disaster: what if someone throws it out? What if the fridge dies? What if the ice cream melts into her necklace?
Either way, it’s a reminder that security means different things to different people. For her? Peace of mind comes in a 保鲜盒, buried under frozen dumplings.
#Radiimedia #Radii #Genz #Qingdao #GoldJewelry
A woman in Qingdao kept her 100,000+ RMB worth of gold jewelry in the freezer. Next to frozen meat and ice cream. For two years.
She said it’s her “safest hiding spot”, easy to access, discreet, and no one thinks to check the frozen peas.
The internet is divided. One side calls it genius: gold doesn’t freeze, thieves check drawers, not freezers, and bank safety boxes are a hassle. The other side sees disaster: what if someone throws it out? What if the fridge dies? What if the ice cream melts into her necklace?
Either way, it’s a reminder that security means different things to different people. For her? Peace of mind comes in a 保鲜盒, buried under frozen dumplings.
#Radiimedia #Radii #Genz #Qingdao #GoldJewelry
...
Your prep school had a qipao phase and honestly? Good for her.
@aoyes_ reimagines the Chinese intellectual aesthetic through the orchid: pankou, embroidery, and qipao silhouettes cut in preppy suiting fabric. Neo Chinese fashion with a girly romantic streak, and the tailoring to back it up.
#radii #radiimedia #chinesefashion #shanghaifashionweek #aoyes
Your prep school had a qipao phase and honestly? Good for her.
@aoyes_ reimagines the Chinese intellectual aesthetic through the orchid: pankou, embroidery, and qipao silhouettes cut in preppy suiting fabric. Neo Chinese fashion with a girly romantic streak, and the tailoring to back it up.
#radii #radiimedia #chinesefashion #shanghaifashionweek #aoyes
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