Viennese Superstition
We’re All Viennese Now
Ian Leslie | The Ruffian | 17th May 2025
Fin-de-siècle Vienna might beat all other cities for its great impact on world culture. It was a famously nervous place full of “intense over-thinkers, overstrung status-seekers, apocalyptic doomers. Suicide was aestheticised and competitive. Vienna’s intellectually inclined inhabitants had the sense of living in a city of brittle illusions, increasingly detached from the rest of rapidly industrialising Europe” (1,900 words)
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Superstition In A Godless State
Ansel Li | Sinopsis | 13th May 2025
Post-pandemic China is seeing a “tidal wave of superstition” among the young and educated. Astrology, tarot, and crystals are popular, despite government crackdowns. In 2021, China banned religious content on e-commerce sites and restricted spiritual services. The market adapted. Now, tarot readers call themselves “emotional consultants”; horoscope sellers have moved to platforms like Discord (2,200 words)