Chinese people use the phrase “yao chan wan guan,” or “carrying ten thousand strings of cash around the waist,” to describe wealth. But how much was a string of cash, and what could one buy in ancient China? Guan was a traditional Chinese unit of account. Literally referring to the string used to thread coins together, it emerged alongside the round coin with a square hole, which first appeared during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). A guan generally equalled a string of 1,000 individual copper or...

A Chinese woman donated 500 yuan (US$75) to an 18-year-old stranger with a disability after seeing a social media post saying he was too poor to afford meals. Eight years later, he repaid her double the amount after learning she was going through a difficult time, which moved many people online. In 2018, Wang Shuming, from China’s eastern Shandong province, posted a video saying he had no money and could not afford food. Wang lives with the effects of a childhood fever. He has difficulty walking...

While it is common for Chinese people to hold banquets for teachers upon graduation as a way of honouring them – a traditional value – in ancient China, students expressed their respect for teachers differently: by presenting them with vegetables. The tradition began in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). On the first day of school, students wore blue gowns and brought their teachers wild vegetables they had gathered themselves. They then bowed reverently before memorial tablets honouring ancient...

Chinese social media users were touched by the story of a young man who, six years ago, was encouraged by a strawberry farm owner he discovered through an English exam question – and has now fulfilled the promise they made. He Ziqi, a postgraduate student in artificial intelligence at the Central University of Finance and Economics, shared the story as he began a new chapter of his life in Beijing. Six years ago, when He was a senior secondary school student, a Beijing strawberry farm owner...