You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Niu Hongling, joined by Steve and Yixuan.
Coming up soon.
With Friday here, it's time for us to turn the week into a puzzle.
Three stories you've already heard and one hidden thread tying them together.
What would it be this week?
We'll find out in The Full Circle.
Let's first welcome The Full Circle.
Three stories, one connection.
This is The Full Circle.
Welcome to The Full Circle.
Every week, we tell a lot of stories on the show.
Some are about science, some about popular trends, and some about our even outer space.
In The Full Circle, we step back and ask a bigger question.
What happens? when you line those stories up side by side.
This is one of my favorite segments now because I find it a fun game.
And who's the player this time?
This week I will be giving you three stories that feel totally unrelated at first glance, but seamlessly connected.
You found the connection.
Very happy.
So what are the three stories first?
First of all, from Monday, we talked about the app called Are You Dead?
Earlier this month, a Chinese app in Chinese is called 死了吗?
And in English, Are You Dead?
It surged to the top of Apple's paid app chart in China.
Yeah, we started the week with this Chinese app that asks one blunt question.
Are you dead?
No longer the name, by the way.
Yeah, it's been changed.
It's been changed to Damumu.
For some specific reason, you can just go to that episode.
We explained it.
A single daily app tap confirms that you are still alive.
Miss two days and your emergency contact gets an email.
Yeah, this one to me on the surface, it felt like kind of a joke.
But then when we discussed it on the show, we realized actually there's a lot of good that comes from this in terms of safety.
It's very simple.
Well, yeah.
I mean, it couldn't be easier.
You just tap a button and then you're done.
Yeah.
So these kind of behaviors or the requirements that you need to do on this app stripping away emotion, judgment or explanation just a smallest possible task that you can do daily.
And it speaks directly to a growing population of solo dwellers where absence can go unnoticed and safety is no longer assumed.
And the fact that users are willing to pay for this service shows a shift that is.
Staying safe isn't passive anymore, it's actively managed.
And it does not have to be something that serious all the time as well.
It can be for those who do not want to actively connect with their friends, but still want them to know that they're still here.
Also one of the reasons that this app is so popular.
Yes.
What's the next one then?
So next we go to Wednesday, which is the discussion on Chunyun, or China's Spring Festival, Travel Rush.
Well, first of all, for this year's Spring Festival Travel Rush.
The reminder is, the peak travel periods before and after the holiday are expected to coincide, of course, with the 90th holiday this year.
So it's a topic about going home and the more systemized process that we are going through.
Training breaks an emotional journey into steps, like giving you reminders, booking windows alerts, redemption deadlines, and now people are experiencing less chaos, less pain, because they they've got new policies like quiet carriages, Free refunds, luggage delivery.
Travel isn't just about movement.
It's about reducing friction now.
You didn't say no chaos and no pain.
You said less chaos.
This is the largest human migration on planet Earth.
Nine billion, is it?
Something like that in terms of passenger trips during the holidays.
And also, it's something that we have been doing for our entire life, at least for me.
So it's a real tradition.
And the emotions there, it's always there to, it's always nice to return to home.
And it's now, well, almost engineered in a way.
And it's very much manageable.
I kind of like the style now better than 20 years ago.
Of course.
Yes.
And then we move to Thursday.
That is a quiet day, trendy lifestyle, that is, in some West social media platforms, a very Chinese time.
So in this current social media context, the particular Chinese stage of your life points to a phase where someone actively engages with the Chinese style lifestyle, that's most of which are rather healthy.
Yeah, things like hot water, if I remember, which you can find in all restaurants here.
You don't have to buy them.
Previously, when I was visiting Europe, I had to order a cup of tea without the tea bag.
Ah no, quite pricey, quite pricey to pay for everything in europe.
Yeah, so this is uh the lifestyle that uh looks light, almost jokey, but spread globally.
Right, people aren't becoming chinese all at once.
They're adopting small actions like Well, you said hot water, or sleepers at home, or rest earlier, having a more routine.
Congee was on the list as well, right?
These habits prioritize feeling okay over looking impressive, just warmth over speed and balance over hustle.
It's small but nice.
You don't need to like that kind of deep knowledge or total commitment.
Just repeat the little action and see how it feels.
You're participating the movement of becoming Chinese without knowing a single Chinese word.
People finding little things that they like from Chinese culture and applying them to their own lives.
And that's what became viral on TikTok.
Yes.
So to put it simply...
This week, we talked about pressing a button every day just to confirm you're still alive.
We talked about the world's biggest journey home now managed step by step.
And we talked about people borrowing small habits from another culture to feel better in daily life.
Three stories.
So what's the connection?
What's the full circle?
Yes.
Yes.
And yeah, when you line these stories up, what really stands out isn't about the app or the trends, or even China specifically.
It's how intentional people have become about how they live.
Modern life is being broken down into small and manageable actions, because that's how people are learning to live better.
This isn't about being lazy.
It's about being realistic.
When life feels overwhelming, people don't want grand solutions.
They want things they can do and things that are actionable.
Actionable, manageable, small things that they can start right now.
Like the are you dead one.
If you click, you intentionally click.
It's very small, but it's something easy and you are happy.
Well, you're not having a friend support system and everything and all of a sudden.
But you are showcasing and you are making a change in your life.
In this story, Are You Dead?, the action is the life check.
And it's intentionally small, because the baptism didn't try to fix loneliness or explain emotions or just promise happiness, well-being.
It reduces something as existential as being alive into one simple, manageable task.
Just tap a button once a day.
That's it.
In a world where more people live alone and absence can get unnoticed, safety is no longer assumed.
It's actively confirmed.
The brilliance of the app isn't its technology because it's just so easy.
It's the lack of technology.
Yes, it's the restraint.
It recognizes that modern life is overwhelming.
So instead of asking users to do more, it asks them to do less, but consistently.
One action replaces constant anxiety, and living better starts now.
Not with grand solutions, but with a tiny, repeatable habit that makes uncertainty manageable.
Which is exactly what makes it actionable on a daily basis because it's so simple in its design.
Yes.
And when it comes to chunyun, we talked also about how we make small changes every single year, if not every single season or month, in the transportation system to improve the process.
But I think there's more.
Chunyun is the action with the journey, right?
Redesigning the systems instead of suffering.
Going home for Spring Festival with a huge crowd is logistically heavy.
Yet what we see now is not people abandoning the tradition, but redesigning it.
The travel rush turns the world's largest migration into steps.
Booking windows alerts, quiet carriages, luggage delivery, flexible refunds none of these changes the meaning of home, but each one removes friction.
Instead of enduring chaos as a badge of honor, people now manage the journey piece by piece.
Yeah, this reflects a deeper shift.
Tradition isn't rejected but optimized.
Life's biggest moments are no longer faced head-on in one exhausting push.
They are engineered into smaller and also survivable actions, and that's, i guess, thanks to the people who are in charge of those things, like The upgrades that we talked about on the show, where you can have your luggage delivered from your home to the train station and then from the train station to your destination.
So it's not just about us taking actions.
It's about the designers of the holiday taking actions as well.
And when it comes to the very Chinese time, I think after Yushun's explanation it's quite clear that people are not adopting the entire culture and civilization at once.
But they are choosing small actions, making the kind of detail that they would feel enjoyable as well, regardless of culture, whether or not the entire philosophical system is something they feel closer to.
It does not really matter sometimes that much.
It does not have to be all grand and meaningful.
It can be just something small.
Yeah.
In this one, the action is daily comfort, right?
This trend isn't about ideology or cultural conversation.
People aren't adopting an entire worldview.
They're picking individual habits like drinking warm water, slippers indoor earlier, rest slower pacing.
Each action is modest, almost trivial on its own.
But together, they form a kind of lifestyle designed to reduce strain on the body and your mind.
What matters...
Here is intention.
And these choices signal a move away from performance and toward maintenance.
Not how impressive life looks, but how it feels to live it every day.
And modern life isn't being reinvented.
It's being softened one small habit at a time.
So small actions that can actually make changes.
Is that, in a nutshell, what you think?
Yeah, across safety, movement and also lifestyle.
People are no longer trying to master life all at once.
They're breaking it down into small, manageable actions, because that's how living better has become possible right step-by-step, not through big promises, but through repeatable choices that make modern life feel livable again.
Yeah yeah, and just thinking about it now after hearing what you had to say, the easier we can make things for us, the more likely we are to do it the changes that the non-chinese tiktokers are making in their lives.
And it is a fun, cute story and, as you said, it's not about converting people and culture and things like that.
No, it's not like that at all.
It's just about, You know oh, if I drink some warm water well, especially in the wintertime, it's going to make me feel good.
It's going to make my stomach feel good.
Slippers in the house, that's just a no-brainer if your toes are cold.
Little tiny things like that can make your life a little bit better.
The button to press too.
I mean, it's so simple in its design.
So I'm thinking now that if we can just micro-habit our way to a better life, that might be more doable than bigger steps.
Last week, also in the full circle, we mentioned the fact that after living in the world for a while, you have already quietly changed to a state that you do not fully understand or master anymore.
At that time you would have to do a reality check to know exactly what your state is and then make probably plans to adjust your lifestyle or just how you manage things a little bit so that it fits your current status a bit more.
Are you suggesting?
Last week's full circle is connected to this week's full circle?
Everything's connected, mind blown.
What i'm trying to say here is that one we have done with the reality check and made our plan maybe something.
Next step would be make the plan a bit more manageable, into small steps, so that you can actually adapt it in your daily life without finding it too intimidating and don't want to make the change anymore.
That's how you connect them.
But anyway uh yeah, if you people may say that it feels like we're running more errands every day, we have more tasks to do, but even though they're just little, tiny tasks and but that doesn't mean like standards are getting lower.
You have more things to do.
That actually making your standards even higher.
Because people today are more aware of their bodies, their time, their stress and their limits.
They're no longer satisfied with just surviving.
They want daily life to feel safer and also smoother and more livable.
So, instead of fixing everything all at once, they raise the quality of life on one small action at a time.
And I remember once when I was talking to Steve about the fact that when I have to do something that are a little bit unbearable during maybe it's because I'm too late or because it's winter days and I do not want to go shower because I have to dry my hair and everything.
So That's too much.
And Steve said, what you can do is do it.
Just do it without thinking about it.
Oh, yeah.
And now I think I can also separate the task into different tasks, going to different steps and doing one step, thinking about only the first step I would have to do.
Turn on the shower.
Turn on the shower.
It's not something so hard and it will help me as well.
So another way to look at it.
I mean, that sounds ridiculous on the surface, but I think that's a really great way to go about it.
If you are confronted with a task that you don't want to do yeah, break it down into smaller steps and then just do the first one first.
And then, once you check that off the list, then you can move on to the second one, instead of thinking about the whole task from the whole beginning.
And also you're wet.
You kind of have to move on to the next step.
Anyways, any final thought?
Think about how often your day is held together by small routines charging your phone before a bed, setting an alarm, drinking something warm instead of cold and also checking an app just to make sure things are okay.
None of these actions change your life overnight, but together they change how life feels.
For a long time we were told that a good life had to be dramatic, like a career leap, a move, a breakthrough moment.
But what we're seeing now is quieter and maybe more honest.
People are improving their lives not by chasing extremes, but by stabilizing the basics.
People are improving their lives from the inside out through small, repeatable choices that raise the baseline of everyday living.
What used to be invisible safety comfort, bodily awareness, emotional load is now being acknowledged, named and actively managed.
And that doesn't mean people are weaker than before.
If anything, it suggests the opposite.
It means people are more honest about their limits, more aware of their needs and less willing to accept unnecessary discomfort as just how life is.
So safety, comfort, predictability, care.
So, whether it's pressing button to say I'm here, or planning your journey home down to the minute, or choosing habits that help your body feel balanced, these aren't small things.
They are small things, but they're not as well.
They are how people are rebuilding control, dignity and the quality of your life in a complicated world.
And that is the full circle.
Well said.
