Views: 0 Decoding the price tag: How China masters low-cost production Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 01/06/2026 “How is it possible that in China everything costs 1/3 to 1/5 of the price in Europe?” That’s the question I regularly get thrown at me.China is using the same kind of flour to make ...

Views: 20 A voice that China did not ask for, but earned. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 25/05/2026 30 May 2026 marks five years since Yellowlion.org went online. No announcement was made. No campaign was run. The writing simply began. That quiet beginning makes what followed all the more strik ...

Views: 43 The long way (back) home. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 18/05/2026 The famous Chinese classic “Journey to the West”i knows eighty-one trials, three fallen disciples, and one monk who walks through fire to bring scripture home. This flight had fewer demons but no fewer detours. ...

Views: 45 Shanghai, trust and confidence growing on every corner. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 10/05/2026 China is safe Two weeks ago I already noticed it, but I’m still so surprised about this phenomenon that I want to show more photos of unguarded parcels on pavements, this time not on Y ...

Views: 74 Shanghai city life Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 04/05/2026 New shop opening in Shanghai Xujiahui Grand Gateway 66 South Tower. What a mad rush ! Lunchtime on the pavement At lunchtime, the small restaurants are bustling and packed to the brim, so people spill out on ...

Views: 86 Here in Shanghai Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 06/04/2026 VLIS party at the belgian consulate in Shanghai We’re in China again. This time we will stay for quite some time in Shanghai. Direct flight and top service with Hainan Airlines. On a straight line from Br ...

Views: 52 The tea and coffee odyssey. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 23/03/2026 Tea and coffee at Hengshan Garden hotel in Shanghai on 28.10.2025 From the ancient tea houses of China to the coffee-houses of Vienna, these two beverages have traversed the globe, shaping economies and defining cult ...

Views: 93 A study in civilisational grief Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 16/03/2026 Photo credit: tearsofdeepgrief Symptoms A French veteran shouts at a Beijing waitress in a language she does not understand. Young Americans drift through Shanghai, certain the world owes them a living, and th ...

Views: 23 How Chinese scientists embody a different value Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 09/03/2026 A confronting image When I first travelled to China many decades ago, the internet did not exist. I remember writing on a postcard to my parents: “Everything is different here.” ...

Views: 28 From active ingredients to finished pills, the cost gap explained. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 02/03/2026 Contentious, complicated, controlled A medicine is a chain: feedstocks processed into key starting materials, synthesised into an active ingredient, combined with excipient ...

Views: 52 Vast knowledge but no capacity to learn. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 23/02/2026 AI’s stupidity exposed. Image generated with ChatGPT5 Some raw, straightforward, ugly and inconvenient facts about the current status of AI systems. The definition What is AI ? There ar ...

Views: 73 From manufacturing to geopolitics: a litany of error. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 09/02/2026 They were all wrong, very wrong. For years, prominent Western analysts have consistently misjudged China’s trajectory, from its economic resilience to its strategic intentions. T ...

Views: 75 The super-conductivity of Han-blue. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 19/01/2026 The alchemists who conquered colour: how ancient China mastered synthetic chemistry 2,800 years before Europe. Long before European chemists stumbled upon synthetic dyes in their 19th-century laboratorie ...

Views: 110 Divergent paths of control and acceptance.   Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   05/01/2026 Shadow economies, street vendors and the state’s relationship with ordinary commerce: a comparison of China and the EU The informal economy occupies a peculiar space in mo ...

Views: 94 Europe’s financial surveillance has made ordinary family support a matter for the state. Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   16/12/2025 There is a curious paradox in how the world’s major powers approach financial support within families. In the European Union, a gr ...