 WeChat is the center of the Chinese internet — powering everything from messaging to payments — and the main portal where China’s news outlets and bloggers publish their work. Fatherly love A new short film is receiving attention for depicting the complicated dynamics of a Chinese father-son relationship. Award-winning director Bob Xin’s Call Me When You Need Me is about a young man reconnecting with his estranged father after his mother’s death. Internet critics are praising Xin for his technical prowess in using smartphones to film the movie, and for showcasing both the traditional and the modern roles of fatherhood in China. In Chinese nuclear families, the father — historically seen as the breadwinner — is often “absent… sometimes physically, sometimes spiritually,” the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly Magazine wrote. But father-son relationships are undergoing a transformation as Chinese youth become more socially independent from their parents. Despite the emotional dissonance between fathers and sons, the movie highlights “the sincere and delicate emotions” hidden beneath the surface. City of grandmas “Old drifting” — when grandparents, typically grandmothers, move in with their children’s families to raise grandkids — is not a new phenomenon in China, but it’s one that’s becoming more controversial. Major cities like Beijing now have sizable communities of “old immigrants” who have left their homes, careers, and customs to become “nannies” for their grandchildren, the socioeconomic blog VisionZine wrote. Many grandmothers then struggle to adapt to city life like using public transportation and living in high-rise buildings, while others clash with their loved ones over the “right” way to raise a child. But some told VizionZine that being an “old immigrant” offered another chance at parenting. Many “didn’t know how to raise a child” as parents, and now get to experience the joy of parenthood again. Olympic disdain The Chinese internet isn’t showing the same enthusiasm for the Paris’ Olympics as they did for the 2022 Winter Olympics. On Weibo — China’s version of X — social media users are barraging state media posts on the Chinese national team with comments about how Beijing seems to care more about the games than the state of the country’s slowing economy, according to the China Digital Times. “Leisure activities are for the rich. Nobody here’s got any money, so nobody here cares,” wrote one user. A particular talking point is about the Chinese team bringing AC units for the Olympic Village, which France refused to install for environmental concerns. Many are mocking Xi Jinping’s plea with Chinese youth to “eat bitterness,” or endure China’s current economic restraints without complaint. “Where’s all the rhetoric about the virtues of hard work and enduring hardship now?” one user asked. | 
