Hong Kong’s Bleak House Books Finds New Home in Upstate New York

It’s no secret that independent bookstores have been struggling globally in recent years due to various factors, like stiff competition from ecommerce and the inability to serve walk-in customers during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Hong Kong, a national security law has also forced bookstores and libraries to pull specific titles off their shelves, impacting business.


Back in October 2021, one well-loved English bookshop called Bleak House Books in San Po Kong, Hong Kong, closed its doors. But to the delight of the quaint establishment’s fans, its owners moved to the U.S. and found a new home for their business in the small town of Honeoye, New York.

Founded by couple Albert Wan and Jenny Smith, respectively a former lawyer and a historian, in 2017, Bleak House Books was beloved by a vibrant community of bibliophiles in Hong Kong, especially consumers of English literature.

Fans of the independent bookstore, which has been praised for creating and inspiring a love of books and sheet music, called it a “really peaceful place in the organized chaos of Hong Kong,” and have been following the Wangs’ journey halfway across the world.


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The original Bleak House Books in Hong Kong. Image via Instagram


After leaving Hong Kong, the bookstore owners settled in Honeyoe, a small sleepy town with just over 700 residents in upstate New York.


“It is a place where our family now calls home and where we hope to build and foster the same kind of community that kept us sane and gave us a sense of purpose during some of the darkest and hardest days in Hong Kong,” reads part of the caption attached to their latest Instagram post.


While Bleak House Books has yet to announce an official opening date in its new home, the news about its comeback has been reason enough for many to rejoice.


Cover image via Twitter

Rapper TangoZ Promotes KFC’s Soup Dumplings in New MV

In case you missed it, KFC China reintroduced xiaolongbao — China’s iconic soup dumpling — to its breakfast menu in select parts of the country on August 22. As part of the promotional campaign for the new menu item, the fast food chain has released a rap song and music video in collaboration with Chinese rapper TangoZ.


In the MV, mouthwatering shots of xiaolongbao are interspersed with scenes of the artist dancing, eating, and rapping on-theme lines such as: “Go go go, the flour is elastic. Pinch pinch pinch, this pleated work of art.”


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TangoZ tucking into xiaolongbao in KFC’s promotional MV. Screengrab via Weibo


TangoZ, whose real name is Zhong Qi, is best known for performing on the Chinese reality competition show Rap for Youth (说唱新世代) in 2020.


Earlier this year, the rapper made waves on the internet and was turned into memes for striking a series of awkward poses at a red carpet event. Some netizens mocked the artist for desperately wanting to pay homage to Big Bang’s G-Dragon, whose signature poses are similar.


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Memes of TangoZ juxtaposed with K-pop idol G-Dragon. Image via Weibo


This is not the first time a Chinese brand has released a rap song to promote its new products. In fact, rap has long been used in advertising in China, thanks to reality shows like Rap of China that have launched the music genre into the mainstream. For example, liquor brand Moutai caused a stir last year by dropping a cringy banger titled ‘Oh, it’s Moutai.’


KFC, too, has turned to rap for its past promotions. In 2020, the fast food giant produced a rap commercial for a fried shrimp dish using the lyrics, “One shrimp, two shrimp, three shrimp, four shrimp. In one bite, I eat one whole shrimp.” Watch it here on the Chinese video platform Youku.


Cover image via Weibo

How Tolkien’s Iconic ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Found Favor in China

Panjiayuan is Beijing’s most extensive and best-known antique market, regularly attracting orc-like hordes of tourists and locals alike to wander the warren of booths and stalls. All manner of old and made-to-look-old items are on offer here: jade carvings, stone Buddha statues, ancient coins, Chinese Communist Party pins and propaganda posters, replica Korean War medals, and mounds of books.


On a brisk autumn day in 2020, I noticed a seemingly out-of-place title while standing at a hawker stand specializing in old Chinese-language books. Among the piles of Chairman Mao’s iconic Little Red Book was The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The English-language and hardcover book, a collection of sketches and maps made by the author, was published in 2015 and compiled by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, well-known scholars of the ‘father of high fantasy.’


Tolkien, of course, is famed for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, among other works, novels set in his fictional land of Middle-earth. His stories feature a diverse array of fantastical beasts and beings, including massive spiders, dragons, elves, dwarves, and the simple and heroic hobbits.


Panjiayuan

Books at Beijing’s Panjiayuan market. Image via Wikimedia


Despite being a regular at Panjiayuan, it was the first time I’d seen Tolkien’s work for sale there, and the unexpected find led me to ponder: How and when did Tolkien’s work arrive in China, and does China have a Tolkien fanbase as rabid and passionate as that in the West?


What follows is a summary highlighting some of the most insightful information I’ve gleaned since embarking on my quest to understand the impact of Tolkien’s mythology in China.

The Ring Goes East

In a broad sense, fantasy is nothing new in China: In the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty, the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West was published. The story, which chronicles the adventures of a Buddhist monk who travels to India to recover Buddhist scriptures, features numerous magical beings — most notably the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.


But The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are different. For one, they are Europe-centric, with the author drawing inspiration from European folklore, fairy tales, religion (primarily Roman Catholicism), and language. His experiences in war-torn Europe during World War I also influenced elements of his Middle-earth legendarium. Characteristics of East Asian folklore, religion (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, etc.) and language are notably absent from Tolkien’s work, which means that an approachable cultural entry point can be challenging to find for prospective Chinese readers.


Originally published way back in 1954-55, Tolkien’s trilogy was released when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was mostly closed off to the world. Revolutionary Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China had risen to power only a half-decade before the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, and land reforms and collectivization were underway. Only a trickle of foreign media made its way into the country at that time, most of it of the ideologically-aligned and Soviet variety.


The greatest hindrance to Tolkien’s masterpieces in China, though, was the lack of a Chinese-language translation of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. This impediment wouldn’t be overcome until 1998, when the Wanxiang and Lianjing publishing companies in Taiwan released two versions of The Lord of the Rings translated into traditional Chinese.


Since then, several more versions of Tolkien’s three-part epic have been translated to both traditional and simplified Chinese characters, along with some of his other stories, including The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, Roverandom, Leaf by Niggle, The Silmarillion and, of course, The Hobbit. Many other stories have not been officially translated, though.


The Lord of the Rings

Image via Depositphotos


Still, many Chinese-language translations of Tolkien’s three-volume epic have suffered due to the lack of cultural context mentioned above.


A thesis paper written in 2000 by a student at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan analyzed the various translation issues in the first Chinese-language versions of The Lord of the Rings published two years earlier. The author, David van der Peet, notes that both versions include a myriad of translation gaffes and fail to convey the original meaning of Tolkien’s text. He attributes these shortcomings to the translators’ lack of knowledge of “the complicated linguistic and cultural backdrop” that frames the trilogy.


Later translations suffered from similar criticisms.


Of the numerous The Lord of the Rings Chinese-language translations, the work of Taiwan resident Teng Jia-wan stands out. Teng first got acquainted with the fantasy trilogy while studying at a British university in the late 1990s, according to a 2018 China Daily profile. She felt so enchanted by the novels that she decided to translate them into Chinese.


Unfortunately, Teng was a little late to the party, and the abovementioned Chinese-language versions of The Lord of the Rings already existed. So, after returning to Taiwan in 1998, she translated The Silmarillion — a collection of myths written by Tolkien — instead. Her version was published in Taiwan in 2002 and spread online in the Chinese mainland.


Teng’s dream to translate and publish a Chinese version of The Lord of the Rings would eventually come true, though: In 2012, she was tapped to translate a new version of the celebrated trilogy along with two other Chinese Tolkien fans she met through online forums. The finished product was published in 2013 and has been hailed by some as the most accurate translation of the story of the quest to destroy the One Ring.

Into the Fires of Fandom

While the success of Peter Jackson’s three-part film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was practically guaranteed in the Western world, there were no promises it would be a shoo-in blockbuster in the PRC. (If you don’t believe me, look no further than the Star Wars films for an example of popular Western media that has consistently bombed on the Chinese mainland.)


Despite the obstacles to the success of the story of Frodo and the Ring of Power in the Chinese market, Jackson’s films would find a reason to celebrate in China.


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Peter Jackson in 2012. Image via Wikimedia


Chicago-based physicist and writer Dr. Yangyang Cheng recounted the fanfare around the launch of The Fellowship of the Ring in China in an essay published in The China Project (formerly SupChina). Dr. Cheng grew up in a medium-sized city in Central China and was first introduced to Tolkien’s work when her mother brought home a Chinese-language collection of classic Western stories. Her favorites were the abridged versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.


Asked about the hype for the film adaptation of Fellowship, Dr. Cheng told me via email that “posters and billboards for the movies were everywhere in the city and my classmates and I talked about it often at school.”


In her essay, she also notes that Chinese-language adaptations of the books were soon prominently featured in every bookstore, and China’s once-ubiquitous roadside DVD hawkers began offering copies of Jackson’s films with “dubious licensing.”


The Fellowship of the Ring

Image via IMDb


In 2004, the final film in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, became the top film at the Chinese box office — a massive achievement. A decade later, when the filmmaker’s comparatively lackluster conclusion to the three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit hit silver screens, it was the Chinese market that helped it rake in the dragon’s hoard.


On its opening weekend in China, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies brought in a record-breaking 49.5 million USD. According to a Vanity Fair article from early 2015: 


“Even though it did pretty well domestically, the Hobbit trilogy didn’t end up being quite the box office titan Lord of the Rings was back in the pre-Marvel era of 2003. That is, until today. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies premiered in China this weekend to a record-breaking 49.5 million USD, bringing its worldwide revenue to 866.5 million USD. Even greedy Smaug might be happy with that.”


From no Tolkien to translated Tolkien to Jackson’s impressive cinematic adaptations, The Lord of the Rings found its way into China’s public consciousness. The fantasy novels and films have proven so popular in the country that — believe it or not — a company constructed a One Ring-inspired skyscraper in 2019 in Southwest China’s Chongqing municipality.

Prime Time for Another Adventure

Amazon’s massive-budget TV series set in Middle-earth’s Second Age, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, arrived on the company’s Amazon Prime streaming platform on September 1 in North America. Over the past few days, no shortage of ink has been spilled by those reviewers lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the highly anticipated show.


As you’d expect, there are a variety of opinions being shared. Columnist Rebecca Nicholson from The Guardian gave the show four out of five stars and praised its impressive visuals, while an Entertainment Weekly critic called it “kind of a catastrophe.” (For more opinions of the show, see The New York Times’ roundup of TV critic reviews.)


With the airing of divergent opinions of The Rings of Power in the international press, I’ve wondered how the Tolkien-inspired Amazon series will be received in China.

“I think The Lord of the Rings has a really great reputation in China. I feel like it is honestly one of those works of Western literature that is most accessible to the average Chinese person. I think [the Amazon Prime adaptation] will do well,” Bryan Grogan, RADII’s former culture editor, previously told me.


The super-high-budget show will presumably benefit from Chinese audiences’ familiarity with Tolkien’s literature and Jackson’s films, and the bump in popularity the fantasy genre received in the country thanks to HBO’s mega-hit series Game of Thrones.


Game of Thrones was must-watch television for many people in China, and pirated episodes dropped on Chinese streaming sites within hours of appearing on HBO.


Considerable online chatter preceded and followed each new Game of Thrones episode (in the later seasons, anyway) on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Memorably, one creative netizen released a viral series of Photoshopped images featuring characters from Westeros as Chinese street vendors and New Year’s travelers.


Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones fan in China reimagined characters from the show as street food vendors in a viral photo series. Image via Weibo


On the morning of September 2 in China, a hashtag for The Rings of Power had generated almost 67 million views on Weibo, and most commenters seem generally excited about the series’ arrival.


“Middle-earth is calling me; I have hope for life now,” wrote one Weibo user. Another praised Welsh actor Morfydd Clark, who plays royal elf Galadriel in the series: “The powerful beauty of Morfydd Clark completely takes me. I can’t think of an actor more suitable for this role than she is.”


“Although Harry Potter may have more fans in China, The Lord of the Rings series is very popular among Chinese people, and I think the [new] series will be well received in China,” said a self-professed, Beijing-based Tolkien fanatic surnamed Dai.


At the time of writing, no official release for The Rings of Power has been announced for the Chinese mainland, meaning Amazon likely hasn’t secured a domestic streaming partner (yet…). However, based on past precedent, I think it’s safe to assume that pirated episodes will quickly find their way onto the Chinese internet for PRC-based fans to enjoy.


Cover image via IMDb

‘Growing Apart,’ a Poignant Family Drama Set in China’s One-Child Era

In 2015, China ended its controversial three-decade-long one-child policy. Still, the policy and its ramifications have left their mark upon those born in China in and after the 1980s. Long Lingyun, director of Growing Apart, is one such national.


When Long first learned of the rule reversal, he felt compelled to write a story about how the now-defunct policy has altered the lives of ordinary people.


Further inspiration came from one of Long’s close female friends, whose parents divorced when she was two years old because her father and paternal grandmother wanted a male heir. Unsettled by his friend’s first-hand experience, Long began to conjure a story as told from the perspective of a young boy whose family preferred male heirs.


Growing Apart Film


The result is Growing Apart, a film focusing on the individual fates of those subjected to the one-child policy.


The film avoids diving deeply into the policy. Instead, the story is told from a teenage boy’s point of view. Cheng Fei, whose family openly favors sons, witnesses how the policy causes strife for each woman in his life.


Audiences learn that prior to fathering Fei, the teenager’s father, Cheng Jianguo, divorced a woman by the name of He Xiuqin for giving birth to a daughter, He Sheng.


Growing Apart, which primarily revolves around the step-siblings who have a chance encounter, is a poignant and vivid tale about two broken families, as well as coming-of-age sentiments.


Growing Apart Film


The film premiered at this year’s FIRST International Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature. The critically acclaimed film ingeniously weaves gender issues into the burden of the one-child policy imposed upon an average family.


By only allowing Chinese couples to bear a single child, China’s preexisting gender inequality was further compounded. The undercurrent of sexism in a patriarchal society had suddenly come into the light: boys were favored, and girls were undesirable.


Growing Apart Film


Besides exploring the repercussions of the one-child policy, Growing Apart provides a sincere portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship. Permeated with tension, hysteria, and reconciliation, the fraught interactions between the two female characters caused many audience members to shed tears during the screening.


The theme of generational discord between Asian mothers and daughters has recently found cinematic successes in the likes of Pixar’s Turning Red (directed by Domee Shi), Everything Everywhere All at Once (directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), and The Falls (directed by Chung Mong-hong), which won a Golden Horse Best Feature Film award.


While Long’s latest film could be considered a tragedy, none of the complex characters is typecast as good or bad; instead, every character is a victim of the era.


Though an official release date for the film has yet to be announced, it has acquired a distribution license.


In the meantime, log on to Amazon to stream One Child Nation, an award-winning documentary that recounts the one-child policy comprehensively.


All images via Douban

Taylor Swift Jams to Blackpink’s ‘Pink Venom,’ Chinese Fans Lose It

A video of Taylor Swift grooving to Blackpink’s new single, ‘Pink Venom,’ at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on August 28 has gone viral globally.


Audiences are so charmed by the fact that the American singer-songwriter enjoys the K-pop girl group’s music that they’ve bestowed the pop icons with a joint name: ‘Taypink.’

Since then, a fan-made TikTok video depicting Swift’s glittery VMAs look coupled with an audio clip from ‘Pink Venom’ has made the rounds online and further fueled the flames of ‘Taypink’ mania.

Swift, whom many Chinese netizens affectionately call meimei 霉霉 (the Chinese character 霉 means ‘mold’ in English, but that’s another story), is currently trending on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. A hashtag related to her Blackpink moment has been viewed more than 200 million times at the time of writing.


“This connection is a miraculous fantasy. Taylor Swift’s reaction to watching Blackpink’s performance was the same as mine!” gushed one Weibo user.


“Looking forward to a collaboration between the two!” reads another netizen’s hopeful comment.


Eagle-eyed fans have identified another potential connection between Swift and Blackpink: In the lyrics for ‘Pink Venom,’ one line states, “Look what you made us do,” which some have suggested is a homage to Swift’s 2017 hit song ‘Look What You Made Me Do.’


This year’s VMAs ceremony provided a good reason for the celebs to celebrate.


All Too Well, a 10-minute-long film by Swift won a trio of awards: ‘Video of the Year,’ ‘Best Longform Video,’ and ‘Best Direction.’


Meanwhile, Blackpink, the first K-pop girl group to ever perform at the VMAs, was awarded ‘Best Metaverse Performance’ for their virtual concert in PUBG. Furthermore, Lisa, arguably the group’s most famous member, took home the ‘Best K-Pop’ award for her solo single ‘Lalisa.’

Swift also took the opportunity to announce her latest album during her acceptance speech for the ‘Video of the Year’ award. Titled Midnights, the album will consist of 13 tracks and is scheduled for release on October 21.

Many are calling for a collaboration between the 32-year-old star from Pennsylvania and the four-member girl group. Some have even expressed their hope that Midnights will include a Blackpink feature. As one Weibo user dramatically wrote, “Please collaborate! I’ll die without regrets.”


Not everyone is down with ‘Taypink,’ however. Some have tried to subdue the whole affair by pointing out the obvious: “Taylor always dances at award ceremonies. There’s no need to imagine an association [between her and Blackpink]; it’s embarrassing.”


We guess there’s a Debbie Downer for every ray of sunshine!


Cover photo collaged from images via Twitter

Everything You Need to Know About China’s Web3 Development

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A version of this article previously appeared on TechNode.


Tokenization, DeFi, DAOs, Smart Contracts, NFTs, GameFi — terms often used when discussing Web3, a catch-all term describing the vision of a new, better internet based on blockchain technology. Web3 supporters dream of a future internet led by users, organized in a decentralized network, and run on blockchain technology, in contrast to the current internet, which tech companies and other entities control.


Many have doubted China’s appetite for supporting Web3 due to the country’s preference for centralized systems and its tight regulations on cryptocurrencies. Yet while overseas venture funds are actively investing in Web3 ecosystems, the Chinese government and top Chinese tech companies have also devoted themselves to building consortium blockchains and have successfully launched blockchain projects in government affairs, commerce, and the broader society.


This article attempts to illustrate the development of the Chinese Web3 industry by assessing the technical characteristics of Chinese blockchain projects and identifying the unique value that differentiates China’s Web3 from other cryptocurrency-based financial markets.

Public Chain and Consortium Chain

Regarding the difference between Web3 in China and other countries, it is essential to distinguish between two blockchains: the public chain and the consortium chain.


The public chain is open to everyone and offers unrestricted access for all users, and data is transparent and cannot be tampered with. It is considered a truly decentralized blockchain. On the other hand, the consortium chain is jointly managed by multiple verified organizations. Each organization manages one or more nodes to uphold common goals and ensure accountability. Consortium chains tend to enjoy good privacy protection, low transaction costs, and fast transaction speeds.


The core difference between the two chains is that the public chain has a token incentive layer that the consortium chain does not have. Therefore, the former is also known as blockchain with cryptocurrencies, whereas the latter is blockchain without cryptocurrencies.


The differences between the two chains have also led to two directions of Web3 applications: the digital asset direction and the industrial blockchain direction. In many countries, the applicability of Web3 mainly revolves around the investment and transaction of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency projects and crypto exchanges generated on various public chains have thrived, as have cryptocurrency wallets, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), NFT trading platforms, and other related industries.


In China, however, token issuance and financing have long been banned, and the government has continued to crack down on crypto mining and virtual currency speculations. As a result, the attempt to adopt Web3 in China began in a more controlled environment.


Because many people regard digital assets as the core feature of Web3, they tend to conclude that the development of Web3 outside of China is further ahead, that there are no actual Web3 projects in the country, and that consortium chains can only be useful in fringe applications.


However, from a technical standpoint, the public and consortium chain can be applied in various scenarios based on different needs. The public chain does not have an absolute advantage over consortium chains.


In fact, absolute decentralization is a natural enemy of efficiency, as it requires confirmation by every network node, resulting in a lower transaction speed than the consortium chain. Moreover, cryptocurrency is only a basic application of blockchain technology. Each time the cryptocurrency market plunges, the so-called decentralized wealth creation system points to one scam after another.


China’s focus on the ‘chain’ rather than the ‘coin’ helps ensure that cryptocurrency hype does not affect the development and utilization of blockchain technology. In the early stages of blockchain development, China proposed focusing on technological breakthroughs and ecological improvement. In the later stages of blockchain development, China actively guided blockchain technology to support economic growth and improve people’s livelihoods in many aspects, including inclusive finance and digital transformation.

Currency-less Blockchains in China

Web3 also has to align with modern society’s laws, rules, and cultural customs; in a way, an authorized consortium chain with centralized characteristics fits better with Chinese conditions.


Luo Yihang, the founder of tech media outlet Pingwest, wrote in an opinion piece that he believes establishing a consortium blockchain network, where consensus is achieved through laws, regulations, and centralized governance, will lead to greater safety and transaction efficiency. He believes that, ultimately, this will create more practical value for the Chinese government, organizations, commercial institutions, and consumers.


In the service economy, China’s consortium chains are applied across industries, including food, copyright, law, health, insurance, credit reporting, taxation, carbon trading, supply chain finance, anti-counterfeiting traceability, logistics, transportation, and environmental protection. In addition, the government is also committed to providing the underlying infrastructure of blockchain tech and digital intellectual property rights.


Web3 is expected to transform the internet in three dimensions — technology, industry, and economics, according to the Web3 Prospective Research Report released by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, a state-backed scientific research institute, and blockchain company OKG.


At present, there are numerous examples of the consortium chain in use in China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. The Greater Bay Area operates on “one country, two systems and three jurisdictions” and has accumulated unique advantages in blockchain development.


Shenzhen

China’s southern tech hub, Shenzhen. Image via Charlotte/Pixabay


Tencent, Ping An, and other companies leading the development of the aforementioned consortium chains are headquartered in Shenzhen, a tech center in the Greater Bay Area. Many consortium chain projects have been launched in the area, greatly accelerating the development of the blockchain ecosystem in the region.


Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland Chinese cities in the Greater Bay Area have vastly different data transfer policies. Due to historical reasons, these regions operate in different jurisdictions, putting the area at risk of becoming ‘data silos.’


The Guangdong-Macau data verification platform developed by FISCO BCOS (a financial blockchain platform founded by Tencent’s WeBank) is an example of a system that promotes cross-border transfers of trusted data using blockchain technology. Taking advantage of blockchain tech’s transparent, traceable, and non-tamperable characteristics, professional service agencies can rely on hash value comparisons to verify the authenticity of the data source, thereby accessing credible data to complete requests made by data owners.


The platform mainly provides safe, credible, and efficient cross-border data verification for institutions and residents in Guangdong and Macau. In addition, it serves business scenarios such as cross-border asset certification, bank account opening, mortgage management, and wealth management. For instance, the platform has successfully shortened the process for Macau residents to apply for asset certification-related materials to just five minutes.

The Future of China’s Approach to Web3

The consortium chain controlled by state agencies or government organizations has helped various industries to work together better and opened up new possibilities. The benefits of China’s approach to Web3 primarily lie in its contributions to the real economy.


From a global perspective, the future of Web 3.0 is unclear, but in China, it has vast potential. According to an IDC report, China’s Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) business market reached 188 million USD in 2021, growing 92.6% from the previous year. Presently, Web3 in China still faces obstacles such as a weak technical foundation, financial risks of speculation and fraud, and uncertainty in regulatory policies.


Specifically, the construction of Web3 in China requires the government to actively introduce new applicable scenarios, drive innovation among enterprises, academia, and research institutions, and help create a user-led environment by opening and sharing the source code through secure and verified channels.


By placing heavy emphasis on developing the underlying infrastructure of the digital economy, such as blockchain technology and establishing new regulatory rules, China can build its Web3 ecosystem through practice and feedback.


Recently, the Chinese government has also been exploring the construction of NFT trading platforms and the digitization of assets to promote Web3 as a part of the digital economy development plan. In addition, with the popularization of the digital yuan, China is also expected to explore the application of digital assets in the future.


Such developments all indicate that China is relying more on industrial blockchain and government-led initiatives to prepare for the Web3 era.


This article was originally written in Chinese and translated by Maggie Chen


Cover image via Unsplash