 Rojak is a colloquial Malay word for “eclectic mix,” and is the name for a Javanese dish that typically combines sliced fruit and vegetables with a spicy dressing. In this recurring Flagship feature, we highlight the best newsletter writing from and about Asia. Pressing pause China’s Shanxi province is a nappers’ paradise. Every day, without fail, from noon to 2:30 p.m., the cities in the landlocked state effectively shut down. Stores and restaurants close, trains stop running, malls turn off their escalators, hospitals go into emergency-only mode. People nap whenever they find themselves post-lunch, whether that’s at home, in a park, or in a car. Even the animals take a siesta: “By noon, there’s virtually no carbon-based life activity left in Shanxi,” Jiang Jiang wrote in Ginger River Review, alongside some incredible photos of the sleepy tradition. The Shanxi naps are a part of life from childhood. Naps are so strictly mandated at school that students who fail to follow through might dent their academic record. The province’s starchy, carb-heavy diet also helps. This aspect of Chinese life “often gets overlooked in global media — the side that isn’t all about high-speed trains and relentless productivity,” Jiang wrote. “Yes, Chinese people work hard. But they also know how to rest.” Heavenly bureaucracy A Taoist temple in Beijing doubles as a reliquary for bureaucracy. Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophy and religion that over the centuries took on elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, and animistic rituals. Across 76 shrines at the Dong Yue temple, labeled “departments,” gods and goddesses serve as under-secretaries for various administrative tasks, making the temple a “heaven for middle-level bureaucrats with a penchant for paperwork in triplicate,” journalist Pallavi Aiyar wrote in her newsletter The Global Jigsaw. Visitors can check out the Department of Signing Documents, which is in charge of authenticating records — not to be confused with the Signature Department next door. There’s the Measurement Department, in charge of keeping traders in line; “the Taoist hereafter certainly has better anti-dumping measures in place than China,” Aiyar wrote. For more punitive offices, look to the Department of Petty Officials, the Evidence Department for Issuing a Warrant, and Department of Confiscating Unwarranted Property. And China’s environment ministry could take a page out of the Taoist Department for Flying Birds and Department for Preserving Wilderness. A sensory war China’s burgeoning craft coffee scene is making a global splash. Peng Jinyang, a longtime Chinese coffee professional, last week won the World Brewers Cup, an international competition focused on manual filter coffee techniques. Chinese competitors have won four prestigious coffee titles in the last six years, including at the World Latte Art Championship. Their wins accompany the broader rise of specialty coffee culture in China, an industry that holds its own against the massive chains, Sam Tang wrote in his newsletter Momentum that is focused on brands in China. Foreign coffee companies are taking note of the growing market. Roasters from Denmark, Copenhagen, and Australia now sell beans through domestic dealers in China and collaborate with local shops on pop-up events. Some have opened their own Chinese stores. “In the end, it’s a sensory war — not just a scale war — and the brands that truly capture consumer taste will be the ones that win,” Tang wrote. |
