【推荐1】Most young, single Singaporeans live with their parents. But some are moving into their own places as social norms (规范) develop.

When Alan, a civil servant willing to challenge and reform this conventional stereotype (陈规), decided to move out of his family home in Singapore, it still took the 27-year-old a month to talk about the topic with his parents. He feared they wouldn’t understand. After all, Alan’s home was a pleasant place. The family’s three-bedroom condominium (公寓) wasn’t far from the city-state’s central business district. There was homemade dinner on the table each night, and his laundry was always done for him. “There wasn’t a push factor, just pull factors,” he says. “I’d lived with my parents my whole life, so I just wanted to experience what it’s like being by myself, you know?”

In the West, leaving home is just another milestone in adulthood. Yet in most Asian societies, things are different. Culturally, moving out is sometimes considered as showing disrespect to your parents, which makes it even challenging and praiseworthy. In Singapore, living at home until marriage is a common practice; an estimated 97% of unmarried individuals lived with their parents in 2013.

While the trend is in part driven by deep-rooted ideas of filial piety (孝道), it’s also linked to government policies on accommodation for young people. Most Singaporeans live in public housing units, apartments funded by the state that are known as HDBs. About 90% of those who live in HDBs own their home.

Those who can’t buy HDBs can rent via the private property market — but costs are much higher. “These cost restrictions,” says Dr Chua, a professor of sociology, “effectively keep most young, unmarried people living at home with their parents.”

Yet Alan, who now rents a flat in Hougang with two friends from junior college, is among the courageous young pioneers resisting the long-time cultural norm. These commendable young people are deciding that the price of the freedom to organize their own life is worth it and stepping out of their home.

【推荐2】For the decade between the end of the financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, the ride-hailing app Uber boomed. The company’s business model relied on the flexibility of the rapidly-growing gig economy(零工经济), and its sky-high valuation directly represented its dominant market position.     1    .

Now its sufferings illustrate how those trends are shifting again. After almost a decade of being able to rely on cheap and swift Ubers to get around, city residents must get used to a new experience. A shortfall of British drivers got so bad that the chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi met with unions to recruit new workers on a visit to London.

There are some factors accounting for this shortage. During lock-downs few were taking trips, but with the reopening, and the urge to mingle(社交往来)again, came a sudden bounce-back(反弹). Uber said that demand in London had risen by about a fifth in 2021 and even more in smaller UK cities.     2    .

The flexibility and casual working arrangements that once so benefited the company now work in reverse in times of labour shortage.     3    . Uber has been forced to raise charges in London and offers a bonus if drivers can recruit others.

In the past two years, the price of an Uber has increased by 92 percent, according to Rakuten Intelligence. Higher prices are likely to be here to stay.     4    . Perhaps, then, Uber will demonstrate just how abnormal the decade between the end of the financial crisis and the arrival of the pandemic really was. The era of cheap Ubers may be at an end.

【推荐3】Huang Yang is a native(本地人)of Zibo city in Shandong Province who works outside his hometown. He recently returned home for a visit and wanted to have some barbecue(烧烤). But he failed to find seats in four different restaurants.

“A barbecue restaurant owner told me to come back on Monday, so as to leave the weekends to out-of-town visitors. Another restaurant owner told me that they had run out of meat. I’ve been eating barbecue for over 20 years and this is the first time I’ve heard something like that,”Huang said.

Thanks to social media recommendations, Zibo barbecue has become popular overnight. The small city was crowded with visitors on weekends for a taste of the mouth-watering dishes. Most visitors are young people, who share online their experience of traveling to Zibo to experience the city’s barbecue culture, drawing even more visitors.

Behind Zibo’s sudden fame(名声)are the efforts and services of the local government. To promote Zibo-style barbecue, Zibo has provided two dozen “special barbecue trains,” where local officials would serve tourists themselves. Zibo’s tourism officials have been promoting the city’s food and attractions and sending gifts to tourists on the barbecue-themed trains.

At the city’s train station, volunteers have been working at train stations to offer help. Buses are ready to take visitors from train stations straight to barbecue restaurants.

Another key to the success, according to Peng Han, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the Ctrip Research Institute, is that before Zibo became popular on the internet, the city had developed mature(成熟的)tourism products and service standards. For example, the barbecue-themed train services, bus services, barbecue map, the youth hostels that offer discounts for college students and the strict requirements for local tourism businesses were not achieved overnight, Peng noted.

Although Zibo is still enjoying the great fame, the local government has begun to make longer-term plans.

As the home of the Shandong businessmen and having origins(源头)in the Silk Road, Zibo will work to develop its historical and cultural resources into cultural brands, noted Wang Shenghua, a senior tourism official in Zibo.

【推荐1】China's livestreaming e-commerce industry has witnessed explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus creating new growth opportunities for a wide range of businesses.

Cao lei, director of the E-Commerce Research Center at the Internet Economy Institute, said that while most e-commerce platforms have now hit bottlenecks in finding new customers, livestreaming provides an important channel for them to tap into customers living in fourth and fifth-tier cities as well as rural areas.“What's more, livestreaming allows hosts to answer call-in questions from digital audiences in real time, which will enhance shopping experiences and attract more netizens to shop online," Cao added.

The number of people likely to watch livestreaming e-commerce events is 388 million in 2020. The typical livestreaming e-commerce session involves celebrities promoting and selling goods while answering questions from an online audience， with everything taking place in real time via devices such as smartphones.

Livestreaming is increasingly gaining popularity as a new online shopping platform among Chinese netizens, creating a huge market worth more than 970 bilion yuan ( $ 149.9 bilion) in 2020. E-commerce giant Alibaba's Taobao Live has taken the lion's share of livestreaming, as 68.5 percent of consumers use the service, according to a survey conducted by the China Consumers Association. Douyin and Kuaishou have taken second and third spots, respectively. Other large Chinese Internet and e-commerce players like JD. com have also thrown their hats into the ring.

Livestreaming has become a key means for brands to gain awareness and boost sales, and for smaller operators such as farmers to have better access to consumers, especially during the pandemic period.

【推荐3】Many American education experts say tutoring (辅导) is the best way to help students make up for learning loss during the pandemic. Although many schools have received a lot of government aid, only a small number of students have been getting tutored.

Chalkbeat and the Associated Press surveyed 12 of the nation’s school systems. The schools reported that fewer than 10 percent of students received any kind of tutoring in the fall of last year. A new tutoring group in Chicago served about three percent of students. But less than one percent of students in three big school systems received tutoring.

The low tutoring numbers suggest several problems. Some parents said they did not know tutoring was available or did not think their child needed it. Some school systems have struggled to hire tutors. Other school systems said their small tutoring programs were part of their efforts to meet students’ needs.

Whatever the reason, the result is clear: at an important time for students’ recovery, millions of children have not received the extra help.

“It works, it’s effective, it gets students to improve in their learning and catch up,” said Amie Rapaport, a researcher studying why so many students are not getting intensive tutoring.

Schools trying to increase tutoring face problems, including hiring and planning. Experts say tutoring is most effective when provided three times a week for at least 30 minutes during school hours. Offering after-school or weekend tutoring is simpler, but attendance is often low.

Low family interest has been another problem. Although test scores sharply dropped during the pandemic, many parents do not believe their children experienced learning loss.

In Wake County, North Carolina, the school district began planning a reading tutoring program in November. District officials last month said volunteers are tutoring fewer than 140 students. That is far fewer than the 1,000 students the program was designed to help. Many worry that not enough students are getting the help they need even as programs continue to grow.