Government-sanctioned Vaping? Nah, It’s Just the New Covid Vaccine

Hate the soreness in your arm that comes after being vaccinated? Or are you simply scared of needles? Residents of Shanghai now have an alternative to Covid-19 vaccine injections: an aerosol vaccine inhaled through the mouth.


The procedure is simple: The doctor first fills a disposable cup with the vaporized vaccine. The patient must then inhale the mist through their mouth and hold their breath for five seconds — and that’s all there is to it. The whole process should take mere seconds.


“It’s like sucking up boba [chewy tapioca balls] from a cup of milk tea. It tastes a bit sweet,” said a Shanghai resident surnamed Chen in an interview with Tianmu News.


Covid-19 vaccine booster, inhalable vaccines

The vaccine cup. Image via Weibo


Developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics, the aerosol vaccine only contains one-fifth of the dosage found in regular intramuscular injections.


Dr. Zhu Tao, co-founder and chief scientific officer of CanSino Biologics, told Beijing-based, state-owned newspaper Science and Technology Daily that the inhalable vaccines are capable of inducing mucosal immunity and preventing the Omicron variant from infecting the upper respiratory tract — something that regular injections cannot achieve.


COVID-19 vaccine, vaccine, inhalable vaccines

A prototype of the inhalable booster. Image via CanSino Biologics


As the inhalable vaccine is much easier to administrate, scientists are hoping that it will make vaccinations more accessible in countries with fragile health systems, and persuade hesitant patients to get inoculated, reported the Associated Press.


However, the current aerosol vaccine can only be served as a booster to those who have had their first two shots and six months after their last injection.


Furthermore, parents with young children might be disappointed to learn that the booster is only available for patients 18 years and older.


The Chinese government has been trying to increase vaccination rates among its citizens but has yet to impose mandates in public spaces or schools. In July, authorities in Beijing attempted to impose a vaccine mandate but quickly dropped their decision after facing fierce public outrage.


According to state media outlet Xinhua News, 89.7% of the Chinese population has received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 71.7% have received booster shots.


Cover image via Weibo

Cruel Buddhist’s New EP ‘Sonder’ Comes With Cool Coloring Book

On October 25, Shanghai-based musician and producer Henry Robinson (aka Cruel Buddhist) released his latest EP, Sonder, via Eating Music. Along with a nine-page coloring book hand-drawn by the artist, the seven-track release provides just the right vibe for chilling out.


The title of the new EP comes from The New York Times bestseller John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. According to the book’s description, it contains “made-up words for emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express.”


As Robinson explains on Bandcamp, the word ‘sonder’ refers to “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background.”



While the artist is usually more spontaneous in his music-making process, Sonder required extreme attention to detail, especially while re-recording and re-tooling the instruments.


Robinson also created a coloring book to accompany his new EP, which totally vibes with Sonder’s overall sound. Adult coloring books, which became the dark horse of the publishing industry in 2015, reportedly lower stress.


A nine-page coloring book of images hand drawn by Cruel Buddist is together released with his new EP Sonder.

A nine-page coloring book hand-drawn by Cruel Buddhist


“This thoughtless state of wonder is what I value most in life and hope to stumble upon in my music. Using handcrafted synth tones and a broken toy keyboard, field recordings, and wonky drums, I hope some of this music can pleasantly paralyze your consciousness for a bit and allow you to drift without its weight for a few moments,” expressed the artist.


Robinson’s music is infused with lofi, chillhop, funk, vaporwave, and R&B-influenced beats. On the Chinese streaming platform Netease Cloud Music, he reveals that he incorporates live looping and improvisation into his sets using a sampler, synthesizer, and vocoder.


By incorporating a variety of sights and sounds — from the morning sky to the sunset, and forest streams to birdsong — in his recordings and live performances, Robinson provides a different way of experiencing life unfiltered and in immense detail. The aim, it seems, is to offer his listeners a fresh breeze and an escape from their daily struggles.

Hailing from Wisconsin, U.S., Robinson moved to Shanghai in 2016.


“At dusk in Shanghai, thousands of apartment lights shine like stars; each a sun with an orbiting cast of lives,” said the artist, who began work on his EP while mulling over the meaning of the word ‘sonder’ during the lockdown in 2020.


“Beneath the surface of meaninglessness in the feeling of sonder is a freedom that comes from being a background character in someone else’s life. If nothing that you do really matters, then what’s stopping us from trying to do exactly what we want, no matter how silly or ambitious?”

And if you are looking for more from Cruel Buddhist: Earlier this year, Robinson dropped a 15-track mixtape titled Lockdown Loops, which documented his daily improvisations while confined to his apartment during Shanghai’s two-month lockdown.


All images courtesy of Eating Music

Zyko Becomes First Foreign National to Win ‘Street Dance of China’

On Saturday, French artist and hip hop dancer Zyko became the first foreign national to win the hit dance competition show Street Dance of China with his elaborate Chinese mythology-inspired performance in the season five finale.

Zyko, whose full name is Nicolas Monlouis Zyko, is the choreographer for the Paris-based hip hop group Brainstorm Dance Company. He also competed in season four of Street Dance of China but withdrew early for personal reasons.


In the fifth season, Zyko became known as a “master of geometry and space” for his elegant, form-focused style. He is especially good at isolations, which are movements that involve only certain body parts while the others remain still.

Street Dance of China is known for its efforts to facilitate cross-cultural communication through dance. Zyko’s final performance highlighted the show’s fusion of cultures: Titled ‘Shan Hai Jing: Hundred Beasts,’ the dance was based on stories from Shan Hai Jing, an ancient text covering Chinese mythology.


During the eight-hour finale, 13 finalists were whittled down until only Zyko and Japanese dancer Kyoka were left. The dance battles were interspersed with performances by the four team captains — Wang Yibo, Han Geng, Lee Seung Hyun, and Liu Yuxin — as well as guest appearances by previous Street Dance champions.


finale graphic for street dance of china season 5

A promotional graphic for Street Dance of China’s fifth season. Image via Twitter


Notably, Kyoka is the first woman to make it to the final battle in the show’s nearly five-year history. This season, the program also welcomed Liu as its first female captain.


Street Dance of China, which streams on Youku, has also featured celebrities like Jackson Wang, Lay Zhang, and Van Ness Wu as team captains in the past.


zyko and a group of competitors and captains after the win

Zyko poses with fellow competitors and fans after his win. Image via Weibo


Season five began on August 13 with more than 100 competitors. Performances were organized in various styles — not just hip hop — and contestants performed individually, in pairs, and in group dance battles over two-and-a-half months.


This season was the first where dancers were not assigned to specific captains, though Zyko was part of Han’s team last season.


Cover image via @zyko_brainstorm/Instagram

Get a Noise Complaint Blasting These 10 New Chinese Music Releases

New Music is a monthly RADII column that looks at fresh Chinese music spanning hip hop to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. This month, we introduce you to new offerings from Sleeping Dogs, Night Swimmer, and more!


While a couple of our top picks this month came from some of the Chinese music scene’s most established performers — what’s most notable is how many of them are relatively new acts. Featured heavily on this list are bands, artists, and emerging labels with something to prove in a creative landscape that’s boundaries are still being shaped.


From video-game-inspired hyperpop to an Inner Mongolian musician looking to modernize his sound; from seaside genre-swaying indie rock to ambient-filled world-building electronica — here’s what our ears have fallen for this October.

1. Sleeping Dogs — Blunt Razor

Instrumental groove masters Sleeping Dogs, a supergroup of Beijing-based indie musicians, returns with a long-awaited debut LP, Blunt Razor, released with Spacefruity Records.


Meticulously prepared with ingredients of Afrobeat, jazz, funk, hip hop, and a simmer of psychedelic allure, it’s rich in texture and flavor yet never overwhelms.

Akin to the aural pleasures of acts like BadBadNotGood and Khruangbin, there’s an intrepid spirit at the heart of their sound, making every track fun to get lost in.


2. NB Palm (无头电掌) — No Need to Give Meaning to Everything (不用什么都给予意义)

Chengdu trio NB Palm burst onto the scene with the stylish and devilishly alluring debut LP No Need to Give Meaning to Everything — a fever dream of indietronica, trip hop, post punk, dream pop, and cold wave that all but defies category.


The trio throws everything but the kitchen sink at our ears, offering a collage of ominous yet seductive sounds and sharp edges akin to a Michael Mann flick crossed with a heightened Hong Kong drama.



Unyielding and overly ambitious at times, the album isn’t so much a collection of songs as it is an anthology of musical tales — with detours and tangents aplenty within each track.

3. j-fever (小老虎), Eddie Beatz, Zhou Shijue (周士爵) — To Love To Cry To Doubt (去爱去哭去疑惑)

A spiritual squeal to last year’s 心愈频率, j-fever, Eddie Beatz, and Zhou Shijue have teamed up once again to find solace in the interweaving rhythms and peculiarities of life by reflecting on the state of the world, and learning to love, cry, doubt, and laugh.


It’s a wonderfully humanizing album, brimming with life and finding warmth and harmony in the idiosyncrasies of its wordsmiths (as well as the other souls they encounter daily); all this layered over Beatz’s soothing and vintage hip hop beats.



And we haven’t even mentioned the all-star guest players, such as ChaCha, Fishdoll, Voision Xi, and Shi Xinwen Yue. Hip hop for the soul!

4. Qunxiang (群像) — Song of Desolation (荒芜之歌)

Qunxiang, the post-punk outfit that broke big last year with their debut release with Modern Sky, is back to prove it wasn’t just a fluke. The new EP is entitled Song of Desolation.


While the Chengdu band has always leaned more into the genre’s ethereal and cerebral aspects, finding pleasures in the twisty malice, foreboding atmosphere, and evocative lyrics of singer Ma Ji, here, the group seems to be stretching themselves even further.

They build upon their hot and cold post-punk aesthetics with everything from beguiling harps to noise pop riffs, culminating in the mammoth title track, a three-part ‘fairy tale’ that eventually dovetails into a spaghetti western epilogue.

5. PussyEyes — Interpretation of the Spirit of Love (爱慕灵的诠释)

Singer-songwriter Chuan Xi, aka PussyEyes, stuns on her debut album titled Interpretation of the Spirit of Love.


Formerly a member of Beijing dream pop band Goodbye Honeyboy and now residing in Hangzhou, PussyEyes has come up with a dizzying concoction that hits all the right notes.


Delicately assembled with a woozy ethereal touch, the music finds that sweet spot between dream pop and dance music. It matches its lush, humid production with the musician’s airy, transportive voice. It sinks in deep like a lucid daydream that you don’t want to leave.


6. Hugjiltu (胡格吉乐图) — Cycle (循环)

Long-standing Inner Mongolian musician Hugjiltu, formerly of Hanggai and Ajinai, looks to break free from the confines of ‘Mongolian sound,’ which has been co-opted and sterilized over the years, by putting out the beguiling Cycle with London label Dusty Ballz.



Combining the three-string Mongolian lute and the two-string horsehead fiddle, as well as a selection of traditional instruments, field recordings, and synth effects, Hugjiltu traces his existential journey between the metropolis and the mountainside. There’s a quiet exploratory beauty to the atmosphere conjured within its ‘state of artistic composure.’

7. Floating in the Mist (悬在雾中) — ‘The Pilar’ (‘比拉爾號’)

Finding nuance, resonance, and innovative chemistry between the lines of math rock and shoegaze, Floating in the Mist relishes in both genres’ intricacies and turbulent hallmarks, capturing an indie rock sound that soars.


The Northeast China band’s latest single, ‘The Pilar,’ released with StreetVoice and Cold Neo, was inspired by a trip to the sea after quarantine (its name comes from Ernest Hemingway’s customized yacht of the same name).


The track leans into the band’s more explosive tendencies and sails forth into stormy weather on the crest of an intoxicating rhythm.


8. Night Swimmer — Depressionfruit (RUI HO Remix)

Wuhan’s Night Swimmer, an underground electronic producer known for his rich tapestry of vaporware, psychedelia, new age, and world music, is riding a wave of accolades after dropping his LP Xia Ye, released with Shy People earlier this summer. This, of course, means it’s time for some remixes.


Taking the 4/4 techno pleasures of standout track ‘Depressionfruit’ and turning them in on themselves, resident Shanghai producer Rui Ho turns up the volume and injects his brand of hypnotic trance and acid rave into the mix. The dual remixes will be joined by a third courtesy of Ciel in November.


9. 1ove1etter.exe (情書程序) — Eternal Fantasy Remix (永恆的純質幻想)

Founder of EVO, an otherworldly collective in Shanghai’s underground party scene, 1ove1etter.exe’s hyperpop sensibilities lie with video games and the ability to immerse oneself in fantasy and create a character all your own.


On this remixed album, he is joined by a host of other acts in China blurring the line between pop, art, performance, and electronic music.


His track ‘Ultimate Fantasy Immersion’ (‘完美角色體驗’), off of his debut from last winter, gets the remix treatment on this new release via a host of international producers, including eMILY gLASS (Australia), Galen Tipton (USA), Toiret Status (Japan), and China’s hyperpop affiliates GG Xia Long and ChunS!ut.


10. Irrelevant Trio — Tailing (威斯特之死)

Budding computer and electronic music label SOTI return with their latest sonic exploration, the debut album from experimental electronic outfit Irrelevant Trio.


Composed of artists from different musical fields (experimental musician Louzhang, jazz musician Khezk, and electronic musician littlesweetpotato), it uses ambient music as its starting point and leaps into the abyss from there.



The album is perfect for those who like their electronic music meditative, grainy, and wholly immersive, a dance between the analog and the digital with modular synthesizers volleying with acoustic instruments such as the theremin and ruan.


Cover image designed by Haedi Yue

Patriotic Film ‘Home Coming’ Goes Overseas as China’s Cinemas Struggle

China’s latest patriotic film Home Coming has gone international. On October 21, the film opened in select North American locations and has since headed to the U.K., Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, and several other countries.


The film follows two diplomats who brave a war-torn region to rescue fellow Chinese citizens. It stars TFBoys’ member Karry Wang and veteran actor Zhang Yi, the latter of whom has appeared in many other patriotic movies, such as The Founding of a Party, My People, My Country, and My People, My Homeland.

Home Coming is the highest-grossing film currently screening in Chinese theaters. However, it seems to be only doing well compared to other movies released for China’s National Day holiday at the beginning of October.


Besides Home Coming, six other films premiered around the same time: Ordinary Hero, Steel Will, Come Back Home, New Happy Dad and Son 5: My Alien Friend, Cinderella and the Spellbinder, and The Tyrannosaurus Rex.


The second highest-grossing film of the aforementioned titles, Ordinary Hero, has only tallied 26.4 million USD, far short of Home Coming’s 201.2 million USD.


zhang yi plays a diplomat in home coming movie 2022

Zhang Yi plays one of the two Chinese diplomats in Home Coming


However, Home Coming’s box office revenue dulls compared to past hits. This summer’s sci-fi comedy Moon Man performed much better, earning 310 million USD in just its first two weeks in theaters.


The lackluster state of the Chinese box office may be due to the increased number and predictable nature of patriotic movies. A dearth of new films post-National Day could also be a factor: only one new flick — Team Leader — was released on October 21.


Of course, cinemas in many Chinese cities have once again been impacted by rolling lockdowns as China continues its arduous battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.


french actor vincent matile plays a libyan politician in home coming movie 2022

French-Swiss actor Vincent Matile as a Libyan politician in Home Coming


Now, with Home Coming released internationally, the film’s Beijing-headquartered film distributor CMC Pictures is presumably hoping for a revenue boost. The release is concentrated on “cities with a large overseas Chinese population,” according to the state-backed news outlet China Daily.


However, Chinese films have historically struggled to attract foreign viewers. Groundbreaking sci-fi film The Wandering Earth (2019), based on the namesake short story by Liu Cixin, made 700 million USD at worldwide box offices — but less than 2% of that haul came from audiences outside the Chinese mainland.


It remains to be seen whether Home Coming can break this trend.


All images via IMDb

Chinese Netizens Divided Over New Taylor Swift Album ‘Midnights’

Midnights, Taylor Swift’s return to pop, dropped (predictably) at midnight on October 21. Priced at 35 RMB (about 5 USD) on QQ Music, the digital album is reportedly the most expensive to ever have been sold in the Chinese market.


Despite the unprecedented price, however, more than 281,000 copies have been sold on QQ thus far. The album has received an admirable average rating of 7.6/10 on review aggregator Douban Music, although listener comments highlight a range of divergent opinions.

Billed as the stories of “13 sleepless nights,” the synth-heavy songs of Midnights range from upbeat R&B in the opening track, ‘Lavender Haze,’ to rhythmic, ‘Bad Blood’-esque cheek in ‘Karma.’


This most recent release is reminiscent of 1989 and Reputation — the American singer-songwriter’s fifth and sixth albums, though Midnights is considered more sensual and sophisticated.


scenes from the bejeweled music video taylor swift midnights

Scenes from the ‘Bejeweled’ music video. Image via @butwhatcanitay on Twitter


However, the new LP is a definite departure from the nostalgic indie atmosphere of Swift’s pandemic-era records, folklore and evermore.


Acolytes of the two indie albums expressed their dismay at Swift’s return to pop. One Douban reviewer, who gave the album merely 1.5 stars out of five, wrote that “the creator of folklore and evermore releasing such work [Midnights], without changing melodies, and with ordinary or even childish lyrics, it feels like [she’s just] going through the motions.”


Another, who referred to the album as the “most disappointing of the year,” wrote that “‘Vigilante Shit’ [the album’s eighth track] tortures listeners’ spirits and makes them want to smash their phones after listening to it.”

Conversely, many other fans loved the maturity and tone of Midnights. One reviewer wrote, “The whole album is full of the intimacy of adult bedtime stories.”


Similarly, another commented, “These songs are like candlelight flickering at midnight, both quiet and vivid. I really like this kind of pop, despite its differences from the straightforward cheer of her Lover era,” referring to Swift’s seventh album.


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Taylor Swift in the 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana. Image via IMDb


Polarized views on Midnights aside, Swift enjoys long-standing popularity among Chinese fans.


Last year, her re-recorded album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was the best-selling album on all major Chinese music streaming platforms, outperforming famous Chinese artists, including Jay Chou and Lay Zhang.


Chinese fans also call her by the affectionate nickname Meimei (霉霉) for her beauty (mei 美 is a homonym for beauty in Chinese) and her previous misfortune in dating (daomei 倒霉 means ‘unlucky’).


Cover image via Twitter