Day: August 15, 2026

Wearing a black mariner’s cap and with a wall-to-wall bookshelf as a backdrop, Cambridge University professor Alan Macfarlane greets his social media audience with a soft ni hao – “Hello” in Chinese. In his latest video, Macfarlane follows this signature opening by thoughtfully answering a question pulled from the comments: why has making genuine friends become so difficult? Few would have expected an 84-year-old British anthropologist and historian from Cambridge University to become a social media heartthrob in China – yet Macfarlane has done exactly that. Young Chinese affectionately call…

China has “strongly condemned” Japanese leaders for visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and making an offering on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II. Beijing lodged a formal protest after Japanese defence chief Shinjiro Koizumi visited the shrine on Saturday. China and many other countries in Asia view the site as a symbol of Japanese militarism. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not visit the site in person but she sent a ritual offering to the shrine. Japanese Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Minoru Kiuchi,…