Notes from ChinaFile
06.23.23
‘What Kind of Wish Is This?’
The writer Hao Qun, who publishes under the pen name Murong Xuecun, has spent the past two decades exploring Chinese society through his literature. After studying at Beijing’s prestigious China University of Politics and Law, he worked in the...
Sinica Podcast
05.12.17
What It Takes to Be a Good China-Watcher
from Sinica Podcast
China-watching isn’t what it used to be. Not too long ago, the field of international China studies was dominated by a few male Westerners with an encyclopedic knowledge of China, but with surprisingly little experience living in the country or...
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07.17.14Inside a Beijing Interrogation Room
New York Times
In the course of my seven-hour interrogation the officers were never ferocious. In fact, they were polite. In this respect, the Chinese government has evolved to appear friendly, but it is still a dictatorial regime that will never...
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07.02.14‘There Are No Rules in China’
Foreign Policy
When dissident author Murong Xuecun returns home, he says he will tell Beijing authorities they can come and get him.
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08.06.12One Author’s Plea for a Gentler China
There is one clear advantage to living in mainland China: It’s always easy to separate theory and reality. We have some rights in theory, but in reality, they do not exist. Income has increased in theory, but once you get to the market, you’ll see...
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06.18.12How Chinese Writers Elude Censors
New York Times
Two months ago at the London Book Fair, where China was this year’s “guest of honor,” Ma Jian, the exiled author of the Tiananmen-era novel “Beijing Coma,” inked a red X across his face in an emotional protest against Chinese censorship. It may be a...