Download the April 2018 issue of That's Shanghai here, or view it in your browser with Issuu here (VPN required). To download previous issues, click here.
In an unscientific poll I conducted moments before writing this note, only one out of 10 people surveyed have more than RMB300 of cash on them. WeChat Pay or Alipay have now become their de facto payment method and they use them multiple times a day. Everyone had to think for a while before they were able to recall the last time they used banknotes and coins.
Signs of China’s full speed dash towards becoming the world’s first cashless society are all around us. In 2017, the Middle Kingdom saw RMB81 trillion in mobile payment transactions over the first 10 months, and the country is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the world in the technological development and adoption of mobile payment solutions.
But as Chinese consumers and businesses continue to embrace the convenience of mobile payment solutions with open arms, our cover story this month reflects upon the benefits and consequences of a total cashless society (p42).
Elsewhere in the magazine:
Arts Editor Erica Martin dives into last month’s controversy between Leta Hong Fincher and Roseann Lake over their books on China’s leftover women (p32).
Meanwhile, in a more physical scuffle, Dominique Wong from our Beijing team profiles some of the top Chinese female MMA fighters (p10) in our City feature this month.
Until next month,
Dominic Ngai
Editor-in-Chief
Download the April 2018 issue of That's Shanghai here, or view it in your browser with Issuu here (VPN required). To download previous issues, click here.
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