You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Steve, today with Yuxin and Yuxan.
Coming up.
What if the week's most important story wasn't a story at all, but the pattern hidden between a few of them?
We're connecting the dots to reveal the bigger picture that you may have missed.
The full circle is on the way.
After that, knitting is not just for your grandma anymore.
Gen Z and millennials have reclaimed it, turning quiet needles and yarn into a loud viral movement.
We will tug on the thread of the modern knitting takeover.
Our podcast listeners can find us at Roundtable China on Apple Podcasts.
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Roundtablepodcasts at qq.com.
Once again, Roundtable Podcasts at qqcom, and now three stars, one connection.
This is the full circle.
It is time for the full circle and in this segment we take a look back at three stories from our recent episodes of Roundtable, and then we try to draw one unexpected connection between them.
As always, we've chosen three stories that seem to have absolutely nothing in common.
And when I say we have chosen, I should have said
Yushan has chosen that would be more appropriate for today.
Yeah, thank you for laying up the stage for me.
An unexpected connection indeed.
So first up, we have one topic from Monday.
We talked about the wedding e-invitation and how every click on the link leaves a trace.
Recently, some of these e-invitation platforms allow invitation creators to see detailed visitor records, including veiled this invitation and how many times they veiled it.
Yep.
We talked about digital wedding invitations, how it was so convenient and simple.
Why are you laughing?
Because the controversy of... Do you know about this one, Yushin?
I kind of know.
And I just realized that, wow, they can see everything.
How many times I visited?
It's a paid service.
So if they pay, they can see who clicked, how many times they clicked.
So it creates this kind of nightmare where if you click but didn't respond, they know.
Yeah, but for the full circle today, I kind of want to shift the focus a bit back on the technology.
It's on the fact that this technology exists.
Our discussion that followed wasn't really just about privacy and how people feel awkward afterwards, but rather how digital tools should respect the soft edges of human relationships and return the simplicity of a simple click.
Back to us.
Or the harsh relationships.
Yeah, that makes sense.
All right, so that was the first one.
And next up we have for Tuesday, micro-shifting and the reshaping of the workday.
So this is basically an extreme form of hybrid working.
It cuts your day into these short, non-continuous bursts, if you could use that word.
Sprint.
Yeah, of focused, really focused labor. of about 45 to 90 minutes, then you leave the office.
It's like separating the day into smaller bursts.
And you don't need to be stuck in the office all day long.
Oh, stuck.
Interesting choice of words.
Stuck.
You see how it sheds light on me.
Nyonglin was very much against this concept of micro working or micro shifting.
I can tell exactly why.
But Yep, that's just the magic when we're adapted to human energy and family needs and mental rhythms instead of just focusing on sitting on your desk in the office.
Yeah.
All right, so that was your second one.
What have you chosen for the third one?
That would be one from Wednesday, how China's subway stations are becoming lifestyle spaces.
Step into a station in Guangzhou or Wuhan or Shenzhen and you might find yourself browsing some fresh fruit, grabbing a pre-ordered breakfast, picking up some farm produce or maybe a brief game of tennis.
I sounded very excited about the fresh fruit.
Especially for a lot of these newly built subways.
They're creating a whole map of these shopping, no matter if it's a store or vendors.
So people can have a totally lifestyle experience underground.
Yeah, and i mean, i've seen, i've been in subway stations before where there are clothing stores, shoe stores, you know, tea shops restaurants, things like that, but badminton right within the subway station itself and it's not even cut off into a separate like area where it's blocked in and you can't see you're playing badminton and tennis in front of other people.
The tennis courts though, the ones that i saw i don't know if it was shenzhen uh, they're half courts, so it's more like a practice space than a full-on, you know, game with your friend.
But still, that's very smart utilization of unused underground space.
One thing is true, and that is it all right.
So we have, what do we have here?
We have wedding invitation clicks, we have flexible work schedules, ultra flexible work schedules and lifestyle subway stations Three stories.
So Yushan's going to put them all together.
Let's get to the full circle.
Look closely and they're all about the same idea.
We are redesigning systems to better fit how people actually live.
With wedding e-invitations.
The debate is about whether digital systems can respect the way people really handle social relationships, where a convenient click often comes from curiosity who's getting married?
Or politeness oh, I'm going to sign a yes or no on my attendance, and ends with an efficient confirmation of attending or not.
And with microshifting.
It's about reworking the structure of the workday to match human energy, family responsibilities and mental rhythms, rather than forcing every life into one single, uninterrupted schedule.
And with the transformation of subway stations, cities are reshaping public infrastructure to reflect how urban residents actually move through their days, using commutes to solve everyday needs, not just to get from place A to place B.
So, put together, these stories show the same quiet shift.
Systems are no longer asking people to adapt to them.
They're starting finally to adapt to us.
So for a long time, social systems were built on assumptions that a workday is eight continuous hours, that a subway is only for commuting, that a digital interaction is as clear and intentional as a handwritten letter.
But real life is messier than that.
People click without deciding.
They work for They finish work in bursts and life happens in between destinations.
What we're seeing in all three stories now is society that's slowly adjusting its tools, spaces and rules to match those realities.
So, yep, that's something really interesting I discovered and...
Weird conclusion?
I see good sense in that.
I don't think it's a weird conclusion at all.
I didn't see the connection in the beginning, but yeah, it's redesigning things that are suitable for us.
I'm not sure.
If you watch some of these live hacks videos short videos they will tell you how you can use your daily items with some unexpected functions.
Like using I cannot fine one, but like using your your maybe um, a shelf to put it in your closet or something to make it a stand or something.
Or an old shoe box becomes like a hamster house or something like that the thing is about you need to jump out of the box and have the courage and the mindset to do something unexpectedly.
So what do you think about that?
When that applies to modern day society, for all of us that, I see that, instead of insisting people adapt to rigid systems, these changes suggest that the very opposite actually, that systems are beginning to bend, stretch and learn.
So here's my final thought personally, I find something reassuring about the direction of All of this is moving into, because many of us aren't just one thing anymore.
We're not only the employee of the company we work for, or only a parent at home or the friend of somebody, but that we're often all of them at the same time.
Sometimes within the same day, even a working parent can answer emails between school pickups.
A distant friend who still cares about your big day, even if they can't always show up.
And then we are also tired office workers who doesn't want anything grand from life, just the small relief of picking up groceries on the subway ride home.
So when systems start to acknowledge that these layered realities exist, instead of ignoring them, it creates a little more room for us to breathe.
Every era has its default design for daily life.
For decades, that design was built around efficiency, uniformity, and scale.
It worked until it didn't.
Because real lives don't move in straight lines.
They overlap and stretch and compress, depending on who we're responsible for and what we're carrying that day.
And what we're seeing now is a gradual redesign, not a revolution, but an adjustment, an attempt to make systems a bit more forgiving, a bit more flexible and a bit more aware of human complexity.
Of course, these changes aren't always perfect.
They create new questions, new frictions, and new trade-offs.
But the direction itself matters, and Because when systems are built with real people in mind, life stops feeling like something you're constantly failing to keep up with.
Instead of squeezing yourself into rigid frameworks, we're starting to see frameworks stretch around us.
And maybe that's the whole point, that sometimes progress show up as small kindness in design.
One click, one schedule, one subway stop at a time.
Hold on.
I'm just coming back from the piano.
There we go.
Sorry.
Corner playing for you.
Well yeah, I was chatting a little bit about this with you this morning and we were talking about the kind of 9 to 5 or 10 to 6 work schedule.
That's kind of the international standard right.
You can go to almost every country around the world and find this type of system.
And it's been in place for so long that it's hard to get away from it.
And I think that's why, when we see these suggestions of micro-shifting, hybrid working environments, The reaction is usually like whoa people's minds are blown because they can't get away from the concept of the nine to five work day.
I'm just focusing on the work day.
But and this is the point that I brought up to you this morning just because we've been doing something for a really long time doesn't mean, number one, that it's the best system out there, or number two, that it still works today, with people's changing wants and desires and expectations about their life.
It feels like before work was work and life was life, and now people want to blend it more together.
And I think that applies to The subway station redesigns, it's that blending as well.
But, but, but, is it a good thing or is it not?
Is it better to keep them separate or is it not?
I don't know.
The way I see it is.
I really prefer this because well, I'll use a very interesting personal perspective on this.
Well, I was in primary school.
That means I was only 8 to 10 years old.
I don't remember.
And one day it was during a PE class.
I was out there in the playground.
But our primary school has a little fence that keeps the school within.
And looking outside of that fence, you're going to see just streets, people walking by, cars moving around.
And then there's a park at the right opposite of the gate.
And I was tired of playing games and running around, so I just stayed quietly at the fence and looked outside.
And then that's when I realized for the first time that outside of that fence, world moves on and freely, as whoever is willing to be.
Right.
Nobody hears the rings of starting a class or getting off a class.
Nobody is requested by a teacher to do certain tasks or finish certain assignments.
They move around.
Kids of my age could be playing around in the park right opposite of me at the same time.
It feels like there's a filter that stands in between.
Like another universe almost.
Yeah, that's something that i'm not sure about people outside of china, but there's a lot of um, what chinese people feel and bring into their adulthood, even after they graduate from schools, years after that.
We remain indoor, we remain at our assignment as requested, as we are expected to, and even a small peep outside that imaginary fence feels distanced.
You know that feeling that actually reminded me of a song previously when really viral and one line in particular sparked widespread discussion.
Life is only about 30,000 days.
Why not just give it a try?
Right.
It's just a simple sentence, almost very, very casual, yet it carries a quiet rebellion against the hesitation and also the same spirit that echoes in lines we've quoted countless from Nezha my fate is mine to decide, not heaven's.
So yeah, sometimes it's kind of this courage and the down-to-earth mindset is making people really resonate with each other.
Who knew a wedding Evite or a subway station badminton court could inspire such deep discussions?
But that's the point of the full circle.
You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Steve with Yushan and Yushan.
Coming up, is knitting cool?
Looking for passion?
How about fiery debate?
Want to hear about current events in China from different perspectives?
Then tune in to Roundtable, where East meets West and understanding is the goal.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve with Yushun and Yushan.
I think it's been a topic that was reserved for the elderly in the past.
My grandmother took part in it almost daily, especially in the wintertime.
I'm talking about knitting.
She would knit scarves and sweaters and mittens for us, for her grandkids and for her other family members.
But no one younger in the family ever even considered picking up the yarn.
Now, though, things are changing.
It's a new hobby for Gen Z and millennials.
The grandma aesthetic hobby has been hijacked by the younger crowd and knitting has become cool, which i think is kind of fun.
So where?
What's going on where who what when where, why?
How did this come to be?
First of all, i'm not sure whether knitting is cool, but it is absolutely hot.
You've answered that question immediately.
Yeah um, people are calling themselves weavers or junior.
That's um, a way that um, Or like, directly translating into female weavers.
And they call themselves weavers on social media, looking for a way to kind of slow down in this maybe crazy fast paced world, and young users are sharing their knitting vlogs or pieces.
Or offline knitting meetups, while related content has gained massive, massive views and engagement online.
On short video platform Douyin, the hashtag knitted sweaters has accumulated over 157 billion views.
Whoa.
Yeah.
Topics related to weavers or zhinyu, as I mentioned, have also garnered nearly 900 million reads.
This is hot.
A single knitting vlog has also received more than 26,000 likes.
People are discussing it, making videos of it, and making actual pieces on it.
You know what this reminds me?
We mentioned something called slow live stream the other day.
This is a perfect theme for slow live streaming.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Slow live stream if you happen to miss that episode of Roundtable.
We just talked about it briefly, where it's kind of like ASMR meets live streaming, kind of not really, but kind of where people don't really talk that much.
They're just doing their activity and you just watch them do it.
And in the meantime, a lot of people are actually opening live streams like that.
They call it Oh, I'm chatting with my mouth while my hands are busy.
And also that's happening online and offline too.
People just enjoy that simple crafting moment and just forget about everything else.
Forget about your stress at work.
And at the same time, the offline meeting meetups are gaining popularity in cities too.
Cafes and yarn shops in places like Shanghai have launched crochet and knitting workshops, combined social interaction with crafting.
Yeah, so what are people I mean?
So, like I said, my grandma used to make scarves and mittens and usually winter related things.
If it was a big project, it would be a sweater, and then you would just pray that it would fit you, which it sometimes did not, But you always tell grandma thanks anyway.
So my question is, what are young people knitting these days then?
A huge part of this trend is filled by some young people wanting these kind of old money aesthetics without the massive price tag.
Because some of these very, very luxurious and expensive brands, they are like launching.
Of course, they have that kind of iconic sweaters.
And then many knitters consider making a that style sweater cable knit sweater as their graduation project, because it requires such precise technique.
And another huge hit was the iPhone pocket a knitted foam bag inspired by also high-end designer collaboration that originally can cost over even 2000 yuan.
You know, 1000 to 2000 yuan.
But It can be actually DIY'd for the price of just a few balls of yarn.
Was it last month or the month before we saw a new?
Was it a new product design from one of the major electronics companies?
That was the phone carrier.
It was like a yarn.
It is, yes.
Was it yarn?
Yeah.
Yeah, and it was crazy. crazy expensive.
It just hung over your shoulder.
But instead of the size of a bag, it was just a pouch where you slide your phone in there.
People are DIYing this.
Yeah, it makes sense.
You know, in some cities, they even open this car hailing service with knitting gifts that's presented between the front seat and the back seat they put like a little gift holder part and tell you these little cute knitted products some shows up as fruits some are in cupcake shaped and it costs about 20 yuan per gift oh you can buy it you can buy it if you happen to get a car hailing from one of these they call it the the express The Knitting Express.
It's kind of a side job of this driver or maybe their family members of this driver.
Oh, fun.
So you said that this is online, obviously, which is easy.
Offline is cool.
Some businesses are offering workshops and things like that.
Where else are people knitting?
They say knitting anytime, knitting anywhere.
But what does that actually mean?
That means when you are like riding on a car or riding on whatever commute that you're using.
So really commuting is the number one time for a quick knit.
Oh, cool.
So like since phone signals can be spotty on subways or high speed trains, many young people they have swept scrolling through social media for just counting stitches.
And that's like on the high speed.
I remember seeing someone knitting on a high speed train.
Yeah, that would be a good spot to do it because that's hours depending on how far you're going.
And also high speed training, they're very, very stable.
You don't shake up around and you can knit with full focus on.
The workplace also has become a major knitting zone, often as a way to deal with some intense job pressure, and it's being used increasingly as a form of attention training for those who feel overwhelmed by digital tasks.
So you can actually put some attention on your.
It's also kind of like you are using your physical labor instead of using your brain.
So a lot of people are also saying these can release some pressure when they're doing office drives.
I imagine it's kind of like cooking.
Yeah, or meditating.
Maybe.
Or reading.
Yeah, but I was saying cooking because for some people, cooking is a very cathartic exercise.
For me, it's very peaceful.
I enjoy it.
For wash the dishes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why is that your question?
Oh, I see now.
You make a mess and you walk away.
Okay, yes, I will honestly answer your question.
Yes, I do wash the dishes, but I don't enjoy that part.
It's the cooking part that I enjoy.
But for other people, they don't like cooking.
It's actually a source of stress.
But for people who enjoy knitting, yeah, they could get a lot of relaxation out of this.
And now that I think about it, I never considered this before, but it's repetitive, isn't it?
You're doing the same action over and over and over again.
So it's kind of meditative. as well.
So is this going into any type of economy?
Are we looking at a growing knitting economy as a result of this?
Totally.
We're seeing individual creators and massive platforms moving an incredible amount of products, and bloggers, especially who started just sharing their hobby, are now running high volume shops.
And I was surprised to find out about this.
Apparently, According to the China National Textile and Apparel Council, knitted clothing is currently at a historical high in terms of production.
And in the first half of 2025, knitting production grew by 1.38%.
And knitted items now account for a whopping nearly 70 of the total volume of all clothing products.
That's cool to see.
I think it is cool.
You said it's hot, but you didn't know if it's cool.
I think it is cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember all these memories are flooding back to me now.
I remember my grandmother said, Steve, I knit a sweater for you, for you.
And I put it on and the sleeves hung way below my hands.
Okay.
You can wear it many years.
It went down to my knees.
And I said, I think this might be a little bit big.
And grandma said, give it to your cousin.
I'll make you another one.
Oh, sweet.
One size fits cousin.
