These are the core obsessions that drive our newsroom—defining topics of seismic importance to the global economy. Our emails are made to shine in your inbox, with something fresh every morning, afternoon, and weekend. The rise of little puppies as an ideal type of boyfriend points toward a shift in popular culture in the country, where young women are increasingly defying traditional attitudes toward romance. The ideal romantic male figure in the eyes of Chinese women has evolved with pop-culture fads over the past decades. Throughout the s and s, the macho image as embodied by the late Japanese actor Ken Takakura—who starred in the action thriller Manhunt , the first foreign hit on Chinese big screens after the traumatic Cultural Revolution—was all the rage.