• Recently, the popular “Da Bing” (Big Ice) on Douyin (TikTok) has been frequently seen with short video accounts extracted from her live streams. A listener who joined a live call asked: “Da Bing, I want to sell my house in Xi’an and return home to settle down.” Da Bing responded: “At your age, you’re in your early thirties; you can’t settle down. Your parents are on the path of aging, your children haven’t started a family or established themselves, and if you return home, you’ll still need to deal with the poren.” Let’s set aside whether the viewpoint is right or wrong, what does the term “poren” mean?

Township Brahmins: The “Big Shots” of Small Places

In many small county towns, people often talk about so-called “township brahmins”—the existence of these individuals seems to be a symbol of local society. They are not necessarily genuine religious figures and do not possess “high-level” titles; rather, they are seemingly ordinary but nonetheless influential people. They represent “power, status, and influence” within that county town, symbolizing a particular class or stratum in that area.