| Hey Inkstoners! It’s Juliana here. The rest of the Inkstone team is busy chugging their Friday evening beers, but I have to abstain as I’m four months pregnant. Oh well. Since our launch in March, we’ve been keeping up with the twists and turns of the US-China trade war, from the opening salvo to the current full-blown conflict. Just like companies and consumers, we’ve been waiting to see what kind of real-life impact it would have. We’re starting to get a clearer picture. Yesterday, shares in Bed Bath & Beyond (a US strip mall stalwart) plunged, after it reported disappointing earnings. The trade war wasn’t its only problem, but it was one of them. In our first story today, Viola Zhou looks at the other big names, especially carmakers, that have detailed how the trade war has affected and will affect their bottom lines. And also make sure to check out our fourth story, in which Shi Jiangtao, currently based in DC, assesses how the trade war, and a generally souring US-China relationship, is affecting Chinese Americans and other ethnic Chinese studying in or working in the US. |
Donald Trump says trade war are "good," but that’s not what many global companies are feeling these days. A number of retailers and manufacturers recently slashed their profit forecasts, because they will have to bear the costs of tariffs.
Of course, investors are worried and stocks have plunged. Read our story to find out the big names affected. | | The Chinese government has campaigned to “sinicize religion,” a policy introduced by President Xi Jinping to bring religions under the control of the ruling Communist Party. The latest target of this “sinicization”? A river. The regional government in the northwestern region of Ningxia, home to China’s biggest Hui Muslim population, has renamed a river – because it sounds Arabic. | |
Unlike New York City, Hong Kong doesn’t usually see rats chilling out by the subway tracks. For most Hong Kongers, cockroaches are a much bigger worry.
But on Thursday, images of rats leapt onto the front pages of the city’s newspapers, after the city found the world’s first instance of rat hepatitis E virus infecting a human. The patient is recovering now, thankfully, but the case has drawn attention to the city’s rodent infestations during its hot and humid summers, not unlike New York’s. | | Growing in cosmopolitan Queens, I’ve never really struggled with my identity as a Chinese American. I struggled with parental expectation, but that’s another story. But identity is an issue for many, if not most, Chinese Americans. And as Shi Jiangtao explains in this long read, rising US-China tension is adding some extremely unwelcome elements to this search for belonging. | | Four years ago today, the never-ending stream of traffic that traversed the political and commercial heart of Hong Kong came to a standstill. Demanding democracy, hundred of thousands of protesters blocked the traffic with their bodies and shielded themselves against the police’s use of pepper spray with umbrellas. Protesters took over parts of Hong Kong for weeks. In the process, they created countless banners, drawings and sculptures that adorned the streets they occupied. Some of the sketches and objects representing the demonstration are now part of a new exhibition at the British Museum in London. Check out our gallery for memories of dissent. | |
Glove puppetry has more than 1,000 years of history in China, but the younger generations know little about it.
Coming from a family of professional puppeteers, the 70-year-old Li Yi-hsin is determined to keep the art alive by offering free classes. Watch this video to find out more about this form of traditional Chinese opera.
| | | | If you've got time | My career as an international blood smuggler American journalist Kathleen McLaughlin writes in the Guardian about how she used to smuggle blood plasma into China (she needed it) and the country’s painful blood-selling scandal. | In KFC’s China Ads, Nuggets Are Served With Patriotism The New York Times looks into how the fast food chain appeals to Chinese customers with a taste of patriotism in its latest TV ad. | | |  |  | | | Get more Inkstone | | | Inkstone is a daily digest of 6 China-focused stories providing unvarnished insight into a rising potential superpower. |
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