Run part one: Why are Chinese people running to Japan?
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At the height of China’s zero-covid restrictions, a Chinese character that sounds like the English word “run” became a coded way of talking about emigration. Since then many Chinese people have left their country for better opportunities abroad.
In the first episode of a three-part series on the “run” phenomenon, we travel to Japan and meet educated, urban Chinese who have made the decision to move. Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent and David Rennie, our Beijing bureau chief, ask: what does their choice say about the country they’ve left behind?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Alice here. You're listening to a free episode of Drum Tower. To listen to the show every week, you'll need to be an economist subscriber. For more information, search online for Economist Podcast Plus or check the link in our show notes. |
| 0:15.8 | This is an ad by Better Help. Did I talk too much? I should have handled that better. Why can't I just let it go? |
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| 0:22.4 | I wish I would stop. |
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| 0:52.7 | The Economist |
| 0:54.0 | The Economist. Two years ago, at the height of the zero COVID lockdowns, the Chinese word run began trending online. |
| 1:11.6 | It's being used as a kind of code because run sounds similar to the English word run. |
| 1:17.6 | Netizens used this Chinese character to avoid censorship as they discussed running away from China. |
| 1:23.6 | And since the lifting of zero COVID rules, some Chinese citizens have been running. |
| 1:30.3 | They've been quietly moving to the rest of the world. |
| 1:33.3 | China doesn't release emigration statistics, but according to the UN, |
| 1:37.3 | the number of people leaving China in recent years has shot up. |
| 1:40.3 | And one of the most popular destinations is Japan. |
| 1:46.0 | This week, we're starting the first of a three-part look at some of the Chinese who have |
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