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A story about a 23-year-old Japanese worker who eats once every two days has gone viral on Chinese social media, where commentators argue the 'cancel eating' trend is less a lifestyle choice than a symptom of Japan's squeezed economy: food inflation above 5%, rice prices up 60%, and a projected slide from the world's fourth- to sixth-largest economy.
A screenshot of a blind-date chat in which a young man says he has "no concept of weekends" — only four days off a year — has become one of the most-discussed posts on Chinese social media, topping a trending list that the same day carried a video about a work schedule described as "more vicious" than the notorious large-small-week system. Together the two trends capture a widening frustration over rest in China's workplaces.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France on October 17 to protest the cost of living, and the day ended with shops looted, more than a thousand arrests and a 143-year-old town hall gutted by fire. On Chinese social media, where the unrest trended three times at once, the burning of the Limoges town hall became the image that defined the day.
The week's biggest stories from Chinese social media.
Wang Yuxuan, a 21-year-old junior at a Hangzhou university, turned a hand cart of Huzhou-style lemon milk into a 20-store chain in seven months — 60,000 to 70,000 cups a month and more than a million yuan in monthly revenue — on 30,000 yuan of startup money and secondhand machines. Her story is this season's template of low-cost, student-run franchise entrepreneurship.
The most devoted visitor to the 140th Canton Fair is 98 and has come for seventy straight editions — and this year's fair he walked offers robots that climb facades and a 10,000-square-metre gym inside the metro station beneath the halls. Both stories say the same thing about how China's flagship trade fair now sells itself.
On Saturday night, 'Call Me by Fire 2026' staged a Kunqu-opera-and-hip-hop version of Wang Leehom's 'Zai Mei Bian', performed by comedian Xiao Shenyang, host Tang Jiuzhou and young performer Yan An — and fan score-trackers logged it as the season's highest-scoring stage. The original singer approved within hours; a teammate's elimination gave the same night its bitter edge.
17 Oct 2026
17 Oct 2026
17 Oct 2026
17 Oct 2026
17 Oct 2026