Hi, I'm Sarah Wu, co-host of Drum Tower, our podcast about China.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
We've handpicked an article for you from the latest edition of The Economist.
We hope you enjoy listening.
In a scary world, comfort food can be a source of solace.
Tasty congee and noodle want-to-one shop, a restaurant in Hong Kong,
offers soothing rice porridge topped with scallions to locals,
visitors from mainland China, and any foreigners who have acquired the taste.
The bill can be paid in Hong Kong dollars or the mainland's currency, the yuan.
The congee shop will even take the ECNY, a digital currency issued by China's central bank,
although the maitre d' had never seen anyone use it before.
Over five thousand merchants in the city accept this novel form of money.
China's leaders seem newly optimistic about the yuan's prospects beyond the mainland.
They have long been keen to ease their dependence on the American dollar for international transactions.
Yet progress has been uneven.
In recent years, they have built their own conventional and digital payment rails,
bypassing the main dollar-centric financial infrastructure.
And thanks to a shortage of borrowers at home, China can offer soothing interest rates to those abroad.
Xi Jinping, China's leader, has said the country must have a powerful currency.
The yuan is still far from that.