ChinaFile Recommends
10.28.16An Exiled Editor Traces the Roots of Democratic Thought in China
New York Times
An interview with Hu Ping, editor of the pro-democracy journal "Beijing Spring," based in New York
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.16And the Award for ‘Best Corruption Apology by a Chinese Official’ Goes To…
Quartz
The winner so far is Li Chuncheng, former deputy party chief of Sichuan province, who is now serving 13 years’ jail time for abusing power and bribery
ChinaFile Recommends
10.25.16China’s Latest Deadly Industrial Explosion Spotlights Dire Workplace Safety
Time
Explosion that killed at least 14 came during a key meeting of the Chinese Communist Party and was swiftly censored
ChinaFile Recommends
10.24.16Researcher Uncovers How Victims of China’s Cultural Revolution Really Died
Los Angeles Times
Her persistence has pierced the official silence enforced by the Chinese government. As time goes on, families of those who died are more willing to open up
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.16What China Sees in Donald Trump--and in Itself
New Yorker
Chinese observers have described the Trump-Clinton standoff as a spectacle of unfettered “chaos” that shakes their faith in the legitimacy of Western democracy
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.16Breakfast Cereal Prices Surge in China Following Appearance on Soap Opera
CNBC
A shrewd product placement on a popular soap opera has propelled a Western breakfast cereal to frenzied popularity in China, sending prices up almost ten times in the gray market
ChinaFile Recommends
10.18.16China’s Real ‘House of Cards’: TV Series Unveils Graft Excess
Bloomberg
The eight-episode series, called “Always On the Road,” is being beamed daily to hundreds of millions of Chinese homes through Oct. 25 on CCTV’s Channel 1
Depth of Field
10.18.16Over-Protective Mothers, E-cigarettes, Sports Hunting, and More
from Yuanjin Photo
A photojournalist’s job is to capture the unique and the universal—to portray brief moments that tell individual stories, yet are instantly relatable to a wide audience. The delightful task of curating that type of Chinese photojournalism is the...
Sinica Podcast
10.14.16An American’s Seven Months in a Chinese Jail
from Sinica Podcast
In 2009, Michael Manning was working in Beijing for a state-owned news broadcaster by day, but he spent his nights selling bags of hashish. His position with CCTV was easy and brought him into contact with Chinese celebrities, while his other trade...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.05.16Thailand Bars Entry to Teenage HK Activist “at China’s Request”
Reuters
Joshua Wong was detained in Bangkok where he had been invited to speak at universities about Hong Kong's "Umbrella Movement"
The China Africa Project
10.05.16China’s Media Challenges Western Narratives of Africa
The Chinese media presence across Africa has expanded dramatically over the past ten years, as Beijing has built a vast distribution network for its newspaper, radio, and TV content. China’s flagship TV network, China Central Television (CCTV),...
Conversation
10.04.16How Does the American Election Look to Chinese?
During the first presidential debate on September 26, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump mentioned China a dozen times. They spoke about China and jobs, currency, exports, infrastructure, cyberhacking, nuclear non-proliferation, trade, and North Korea...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.04.16China’s Rising Threat to the U.S. Movie Industry
Politico
With firms like Dalian Wanda gaining influence in the U.S., would a war movie called South China Sea ever play in one of Wanda’s theaters?
ChinaFile Recommends
10.04.16Propaganda and Censorship Remain China’s Favored Tools of Control
South China Morning Post
Recent court rulings rapping people questioning the party-state’s tales about war heroes reflect leaders’ insecurity over their rule
ChinaFile Recommends
09.30.16A Storied Hong Kong Newspaper Feels the Heat from China
NPR
After recently shutting down its Chinese-language website and deleting archives, the South China Morning Post announced more cuts.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.30.16When China Began Streaming Trials Online
BBC
Boot up your laptop or turn on your smartphone and take a peek inside legal proceedings
The China Africa Project
09.29.16Humanizing the China-Africa Relationship with Film
When independent filmmaker Carl Houston Mc Millan was growing up in the tiny southern African country of Lesotho, he saw firsthand the effects of China’s surging engagement in Africa. Even in this remote country, embedded within South Africa, far...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.29.16Peyton Manning is Looking for the Yao Ming of Football in China
Bloomberg
Former quarterback says ‘no-brainer’ for NFL to play in China
ChinaFile Recommends
09.28.16Chinese State Media Say U.S. Debate Shows Vote is ‘Lose-Lose’
Bloomberg
Party paper report calls Trump nervous, Clinton well-prepared
ChinaFile Recommends
09.28.16Blow-By-Blow Account of the China-Singapore Spat Over South China Sea Report
South China Morning Post
Global Times report stirs up controversy
ChinaFile Recommends
09.27.16Why the US Presidential Debate Couldn’t Ignore China
South China Morning Post
Clinton, Trump clash over cybersecurity, terrorism, trade, and nuclear threats
ChinaFile Recommends
09.22.16How to Counter China’s Global Propaganda Offensive
New York Times
It has been a difficult year for many Western democracies — and China is rubbing it in.
Sinica Podcast
09.20.16What is the Chinese-American Identity?
from Sinica Podcast
What is the Chinese-American identity? How has the rise of China affected American attitudes toward ethnically Chinese people in the United States and elsewhere? How do the 3.8 million Chinese-Americans impact U.S.-China relations, and what role...
Media
09.14.16The Chinese Democratic Experiment that Never Was
Protesters in southern China are up in arms. They feel that Beijing’s promises that they’d be able to vote for their own local leaders have been honored in the breach. They’re outraged at the show of force in the face of peaceful protest, and...
Conversation
09.13.16Can China’s Best Newspaper Survive?
On September 9, the South China Morning Post’s Chinese-language website went dark with little explanation, leading to concerns that censorship might next spread to the newspaper’s English-language coverage. Can Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, who has...
Depth of Field
09.12.16African Migrants in Guangzhou, Forgetting, Family Planning’s Fate, and More...
from Yuanjin Photo
Photographing the aftermath of catastrophic events is challenging—one that photographer Mu Li handles with creativity and grace looking back at the chemical explosion in Tianjin that damaged as many as 17,000 homes August 12, 2015. Another challenge...
The NYRB China Archive
09.08.16The People in Retreat
from New York Review of Books
Ai Xiaoming is one of China’s leading documentary filmmakers and political activists. Since 2004, she has made more than two dozen films, many of them long, gritty documentaries that detail citizen activism or uncover whitewashed historical events...
Conversation
09.07.16The Hong Kong Election: What Message Does it Send Beijing?
On September 4, Hong Kong elected a batch of its youngest and most pro-democratic lawmakers yet. Six new legislators, all under 40, won on platforms that called for Hong Kongers to decide their own fate. The youngest is 23-year-old Nathan Law, a...
Conversation
09.01.16What Can We Expect from China at the G20?
On September 4-5, heads of the world’s major economies will meet in the southeastern city of Hangzhou for the G20 summit. The meeting represents “the most significant gathering of world leaders in China’s history,” according to The New York Times...
Sinica Podcast
08.31.16What Is Cultural About the Cultural Revolution? Creativity Amid Destruction
from Sinica Podcast
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, a chaotic decade of Chinese history made infamous in the West through books such as Wild Swans and Life and Death in Shanghai, which describe in horrific detail the...
The China Africa Project
08.17.16China’s Undeserved Reputation for Building Bad Infrastructure in Africa
The Chinese build more infrastructure than any other country (foreign or African) in Africa. Chinese banks are financing billions of dollars in new loans, aid packages, and other deals to build badly-needed infrastructure across the continent, and...
Conversation
08.10.16Is Big Data Increasing Beijing’s Capacity for Control?
China’s authoritarian government is using big data to develop credit scoring systems, and is urging data-sharing between companies and governments, putting ordinary Chinese squarely in the digital spotlight. How should Chinese netizens and global...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.08.16Week of TV Trials in China Signals New Phase in Attack on Rights
New York Times
Legal experts and supporters of four defendants denounced the hearings, held on consecutive days in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing, as grotesque show trials.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.08.16China Is Angry Over These Olympics
Fortune
The state press and internet users are lashing out after an Australian swimmer’s comments.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.28.16Chinese Propaganda Video on South China Sea Will Be Played 120 Times Everyday in Times Square
Shanghaiist
The video will play from July 23rd to August 3rd.
The NYRB China Archive
07.28.16China: The People’s Fury
from New York Review of Books
It has long been routine to find in both China’s official news organizations and its social media a barrage of anti-American comment, but rarely has it reached quite the intensity and fury of the last few days. There have been calls from citizens on...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.25.16Jackie Chan’s ‘Skiptrace’ Leaps to $60 Million Opening
Variety
The film’s success justifies Chan’s role as a producer.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.25.16China Bans Internet News Reporting as Media Crackdown Widens
Bloomberg
Internet portals must shut all original reporting operations.
Sinica Podcast
07.20.16The Kaiser Kuo Exit Interview
from Sinica Podcast
This week, Kaiser sits in the guest chair and tells us about his 20-plus years of living in China. He recounts being the front man for the heavy metal band Tang Dynasty and the group’s tour stops in China’s backwater towns, shares his feelings on...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.14.16China’s Wanda Shows Interest in Viacom’s Paramount
Reuters
Deliberations over Paramount’s future has become the flashpoint of a bitter row between Viacom Chief Executive and the company’s controlling shareholder.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.14.16‘Ghostbusters’ In Line for China Ban Due to Supernatural Theme
Guardian
Under China’s censorship laws any films suggesting the existence of the supernatural can be banned from distribution.
Conversation
07.12.16China’s Claims in the South China Sea Rejected
On Tuesday in the Hague, the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China’s claims that a scattering of rocks and reefs in the contested South China Sea qualify as Exclusive Economic Zones for China. The court found in favor of the Philippines’...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.12.16Beetle Is Named in Honor of Xi Jinping, But China Aims To Squash The News
New York Times
China censors the beetle that “fights corruption” like President Xi Jinping....
ChinaFile Recommends
07.06.16Challenging China: Former Executive Hosts a Politically Sensitive Book Club
Wall Street Journal
China puts heavy security on one woman....
ChinaFile Recommends
07.06.16China Cracks Down on News Reports Spread via Social Media
New York Times
The Cyberspace Administration of China works hard to filter the news....
ChinaFile Recommends
07.06.16Connecting to China's Patchy Internet Freedom
EG365
Determined Chinese internet users turn to Virtual private Networks....
Conversation
06.30.16Where Is China’s Internet Headed?
Lu Wei, the often combative Chinese official known as China’s “Internet Czar,” will step down, and is to be replaced by a former deputy of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The personnel change comes after a period of mounting restrictions on China’s...
Culture
06.29.16Using Free Sex to Expose Sexual Abuse in China
Nanfu Wang hoped that a woman called Ye Haiyan (“Hooligan Sparrow”), who had offered free sex on the Internet to draw attention to the plight of poor women selling their bodies to support their children, would lead her to the prostitutes she wanted...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.29.16Lu Wei, China’s Internet Czar, Will Step Down From Post
New York Times
China‘s “firewall” hands the position to Xu Lin after years of building internet policy....
ChinaFile Recommends
06.29.16China Cracks Down on ‘Harmful’ Speech
Diplomat
Government demands an apology from a writer questioning an ‘official account of a wartime story’.....
ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.16Lady Gaga Infuriates Her Chinese Fans by Meeting The Dalai Lama
Time
Mixed emotions surface from “Mother Monster’s” meeting about kindness....
Media
06.22.16‘Wukan,’ Once a Byword For Chinese Democracy, Now Censored
A fishing village in southern Guangdong province, once a standard-bearer for small-time democracy in China, has now become a political disaster—and the most-censored term on Chinese social media.In September 2011, amid protests over land sales in...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.17.16Find-a-Journalist App Highlights Murky Media Practices in China
Wall Street Journal
The app connects companies seeking publicity and journalists interested in pocketing some extra cash.
Conversation
06.13.16A War of Words Over the South China Sea
Beginning earlier this year, four-star Admiral Harry Harris, the U.S. Navy’s top commander in the Pacific, has spoken out in speeches, interviews, private meetings, and testimony to Congress urging that the U.S. take more aggressive action against...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.13.16China’s Content Crackdown Forces Western Media Concessions
Wall Street Journal
Rules barring foreign media firms from video-streaming licenses are being more strictly enforced.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.13.16Inside the World of China's Ultra Rich
Al Jazeera
Kevin K Li, director of reality show Ultra Rich Asian Girls, speaks to Al Jazeera about China's wealthiest 1 percent.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.01.16'Truth Ain't Lie Dude': Official Chinese Account Goes on Twitter Spree
CNN
They quickly attracted considerable mockery such as "go home State Council Information Office, you're drunk."
ChinaFile Recommends
06.01.16Controversial Television Ad Prompts Outrage Across China
Time
'Most Chinese people have never been around a foreigner,' says the creator of a viral video that criticized the ad.
The China Africa Project
06.01.16Online Outrage Over Racist Chinese Ad Says a Lot About How China and the West React to Racism
The company behind the racist Chinese laundry detergent ad that sparked widespread online outrage around the world issued a half-hearted apology for the uproar it caused. Actually, it was one of those “we’re sorry if anyone was offended” kind of...