#47: The fall of Baidu & Bloomage ⏬, McDonald’s food safety issues 🍽️, Racy coconut milk 🥥, Pets on train (?) 🐶 | Following the yuan

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Hi there, I’ve settled down in East London for now and just found a desk at a local coworking space. The temporary move has had a surprisingly positive effect on my lifestyle and mental state. 🥹

As opposed to working late into the night in China, I can see myself having this routine here: waking up around 6-7AM, replying to messages from China/doing time-sensitive work, taking a 20-min walk to work, and staying there until around 6PM unless there are meetings in the city.

The office photo I sent to my family chat group.

I’m not take things for granted. Namely, the abundant resources of information (as simple as getting a copy of Historian Frank Dikötter’s book), the creative freedom (going to a Hong Kong doc screening), and the language environment (to keep up my English level so that I won’t get ‘lucrative’/'‘ludicrous’ wrong again). In the meantime, I’m well aware that the lifestyle isn’t as comfortable, but that’s not my priority at the moment.

I’m looking to start up a monthly meet-up here for subscribers and professionals with China experiences, let me know if you’d be interested!

The fall of Baidu’s ex-VP ⏬

You might have already read about how Baidu (HKG: 9888; Nasdaq: BIDU) ex-Vice President Qu Jing stirred up controversy in several Douyin short videos in early May. Usually, people forget about company crises in a few days, but this story is still ongoing.