Newsletter | 野生藤蔓 wild vine ✨
野生藤蔓 wild vine✨ is a bilingual newsletter where I mostly share personal essays and field notes beyond my journalistic work. It is not just about China, but about different people and how they live in and beyond China: their past and present, love and loss, pride and trauma.
Why 野生(wild)藤蔓(vine)
I think great China stories often come from somewhere wild, raw and original. I want to find out more. They always grow inside a person who’s deeply honest about their past and present, no matter where they live.
So I launched this newsletter in spring 2025 while traveling solo in Yunnan, a place where wild plants are ubiquitous, and people of diverse backgrounds live in chaotic peace. It is just one of many such places across China.
Previously in finance, I covered TMT. In journalism, my work spans culture & society, gender, labor, economy, foreign policy. This newsletter is a mix of where my thinking crosses all these fields. Essays every few weeks, some in Chinese and some in English, on the things I care most about: from history to modern culture to finance and AI that influence our lives, identity, values.
Personal essays
一封私人信件 | 2025 letter from China✨ | Jan 3, 2026 | Chinese
如何渡过风暴｜living through turbulence | Feb 17, 2026 | Chinese
二十八小时绿皮火车记 ｜28 hours on a green train | May 4, 2025 | Chinese
Culture
China’s rural pension system back on the agenda, but can it change? | Mar 12, 2026 | English
summer mix: tomato salad, wild swims, heatwaves and floods | Aug 29, 2025 | English
Xishuangbanna's energy and inspiration | May 27, 2025 | English
Society
China’s rural pension system back on the agenda, but can it change? | Mar 12, 2026 | English
香港大火一個月後，仍待解的問題：圍標、法團、檢測報告、災後重建 ｜One month after Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades | Dec 26, 2025 | Chinese
30 years after beijing's largest ever conference on women: legacies and outlook | Dec 31, 2025 | English
系列｜北京“九五”世界妇女大会30周年（二）：重读李小江和高小贤 | Oct 29, 2025 | Chinese
系列｜北京“九五“世界妇女大会30周年（一）：共读《女性的反响》| Oct 20, 2025 | Chinese