‘China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-Dresser’

A Sinica Podcast

By Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more on September 30, 2017

Michael Bristow, the Asia Pacific editor for the BBC World Service, has written a book called China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-Dresser, in which he recounts his time in China—his travels, his reporting, and his myriad experiences—through the prism of his relationship with his Chinese teacher. The Teacher—who insisted on anonymity—is a Beijinger. He’s a thoughtful and educated man, and also a transvestite. Yet his transvestism is just one aspect of a many-faceted individual whose life has mirrored incredible changes in Chinese society since the Cultural Revolution.

Trump on China

Track What the Trump Administration is Saying about China

on September 29, 2017

In the run-up to and during his race toward the presidency of the United States, Donald Trump made frequent statements about China, its people, and the government in Beijing, in remarks that ranged from effusive praise to outright attack, and which occupied a wide spectrum of factual accuracy.

Michael Bristow

on September 29, 2017

Michael Bristow is Asia/Pacific editor for the BBC World Service and author of China in Drag. Bristow has been a journalist for more than 20 years, starting out as a reporter on a weekly newspaper before moving to an evening publication and then on to the U.K.’s Press Association. He then switched to broadcasting, initially working for the BBC World Service. Bristow first studied China at university. His reports on everything, from politics to the occasional outbreak of plague, have appeared on TV, radio, and online. He reported on the Sichuan earthquake, the Beijing Olympics, and unrest in Tibet, as well as trying to work out exactly who’s ruling the country.

Melissa Berman

on September 28, 2017

Melissa Berman is the President and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Business School, where she also serves on the Advisory Board for the Social Enterprise Program.

Leaving Nothing to Chance, China Increases Security, Social Control before Congress

By Christian Shepherd and Ben Blanchard on September 28, 2017

China is tightening security for next month’s twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress, cancelling police leave in Beijing, limiting tourism to Tibet, and clamping down on the spread of political rumors.

Politics
Chinese Communist Party, 19th Party Congress, National Party Congress, Security, Beijing

China Gives Carmakers More Time in Biggest Electric-Vehicle Plan

on September 28, 2017

China unveiled a comprehensive set of emission rules and delayed a credit-score program tied to the production of electric cars, giving automakers more time to prepare for the phasing out of fossil-fuel powered vehicles.

Business, Environment, Technology, Urban Life
Electric Vehicles, Tesla, Carbon, Clean Energy, Pollution, Automobile Industry

‘My Parents Say Hurry up and Find a Girl’: China's Millions of Lonely ‘Leftover Men’

By Wanning Sun on September 28, 2017

When Liu returned to his childhood village to celebrate Chinese New Year, his parents had arranged a familiar and depressing task for him: a series of speed dates. Over a week back in rural Jiangxi province, he met half a dozen potential wives in encounters he says felt more like job interviews. He expects to go through the same process next year, without much hope of success.

Society
Gender, Demographics, Marriage, Society, One-Child Policy, Inequality, Gender Equality

How China and America Can Protect the World’s Antiquities

By Eleni Wah on September 28, 2017

In 1971, a ping-pong match between the U.S. and Chinese national teams helped open relations between the two countries. Since then, people-to-people diplomacy has been a bright spot in otherwise tense interactions. But civil society engagement has become increasingly challenging.

History
Antiquities, U.S.-China Relations, Illegal Trade, Trade, History, Art History, Art