Viewpoint
10.18.19
Converting the Converters
Chinese LGBT advocates have set out to convince China’s mental health field that being professionally competent means being LGBT-affirming (and for the already LGBT-friendly counselors, that mere friendliness is not enough—they also need to have...
Viewpoint
08.23.18
It’s Too Easy to Wind up in a Chinese Psychiatric Hospital, and Far Too Hard to Get Out
Every day in China, hundreds of people are involuntarily confined in mental health facilities, some through their involvement in criminal cases, many more via the government’s civil commitment processes. Whether, how, and how long to detain the...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.15.17“Have You Considered Your Parents’ Happiness?”
Human Rights Watch
The psychiatrist told my mom: ‘Homosexuality is just like all the other mental diseases, like depression, anxiety, or bipolar. It can be cured…. Trust me, leave him here, he is in good hands.’
Caixin Media
07.07.17
Court Rules Hospital Violated Gay Man’s Liberty
A gay man in Henan province has been awarded 5,000 yuan (U.S.$735) in compensation from a local psychiatric hospital where he was locked up for 19 days and forced to take pills and injections as therapy for his homosexuality. In its decision on June...
Depth of Field
03.22.17
Refugees from Myanmar, Migrant Workers, and the Lantern Festival
from Yuanjin Photo
This month, we feature galleries published in February that showcase photographers’ interest in China’s borders and its medical woes, the lives of its minorities and their traditions and customs, and—in the case of Dustin Shum’s work—in a visual...
Depth of Field
02.16.17
Riding into the New Year
from Yuanjin Photo
As preparations for the Chinese New Year got underway, Liang Yingfei set up a roadside studio and asked migrants traveling home by motorbike to stop for a quick photograph. While in Cambodia for the Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops, Jia...
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10.31.16Did a Story About Rape Take Down a Chinese TV Show?
BBC
A popular TV show in China has been cancelled after featuring the mother and grandmother of a young woman who was repeatedly raped, but never reported it
ChinaFile Recommends
10.13.16Born in the U.S., Raised in China: ’Satellite Babies’ Have a Hard Time Coming Home
NPR
Studies show the arrangement can take a great emotional toll on both parents and children
ChinaFile Recommends
10.11.16Risk of Vanishing: More than 1,300 Elderly Go Missing in China Every Day
China Daily
Online app helps find 100 lost seniors as research shows growing dementia threat
ChinaFile Recommends
10.06.16Recognizing Boarding Schools’ Psychic Toll in China
New York Times
The most deeply affected may be those born in the early decades after 1949, as the boarding system spread — those in their 50s and 60s who run the country today.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.29.16Chengguan, Widely Despised Officers in China, Find Refuge and a Kind Ear
New York Times
China’s first Psychological Crisis Center for Chengguan opened in Nanjing this week
Depth of Field
09.12.16
African 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...
Green Space
05.11.16
The Dark Side of Country Life
The last time we peeked at Lei Hu’s photo blog, Lei was giving us a cheery look at a China that we rarely get to see: the countryside and its beauty. But there’s a dark side to country life in China, as well, and a new blog post from Lei explores...
Depth of Field
04.29.16
April’s Best Chinese Photojournalism
from Yuanjin Photo
Over the past few weeks, the publications Sina, Tencent, Caixin, China Youth Daily, and the publishing duo Sixth Tone/The Paper published photo stories on the intimate, the industrial, the private, and the political. Journalists Yan Cong and Ye Ming...
Caixin Media
11.10.14
Popular Mental Health Treatment Has No Benefits, Experts Say
A widely used and expensive mental illness treatment that many patients have turned to for help is in the spotlight due to suggestions it offers little help.A college student name Xiaolei and his father travelled more than 500 kilometers from the...
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04.11.13China Moves To Tackle Autism With First Study
South China Morning Post
National health authorities have embarked on an ambitious, three-year, 32-million-yuan project to determine the prevalence of autism in China and charter new protocols for diagnoses and treatment.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.12Snapshots from a Rising China
Sina Blog
Mention China and people think of the Great Wall, tofu, kung fu, and of course, Confucius. They might also think of the skyscrapers in Beijing and Shanghai, and the unforgettable 2008 Olympics which heralded China’s rise as a great nation. People...
The NYRB China Archive
01.27.03China’s Psychiatric Terror
from New York Review of Books
1.At its triennial congress in Yokohama last September, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) overwhelmingly voted to send a delegation to China to investigate charges that dissidents were being imprisoned and maltreated as “political maniacs”...