Photo Gallery
07.24.19
‘I Love HK but Hate It at the Same Time’
A central issue many of the Hong Kong people in my portraits are wrestling with is how to define an identity and being challenged in that pursuit by cultural, social, or political pressures. There is a lot of frustration and anger over the recent...
Depth of Field
02.25.19
Living by the Rivers
from Yuanjin Photo
If the stories in this edition of Depth of Field share a common thread—apart from their distinguished photographic storytelling—it’s their interest in the flux and churn of life in China in 2019, where nothing seems fixed and pressure of constant...
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01.22.18China Takes Aim at Hip-Hop, Saying ‘Low-Taste Content’ Must Stop
Reuters
China’s censors have a new target in a widespread clamp-down on popular culture: the country’s nascent hip-hop scene, which resonated with Chinese youth last year on hugely popular television show “Rap of China.”
Depth of Field
11.20.17
Fake Girlfriends, Chengdu Rappers, and a Chow Chow Making Bank
from Yuanjin Photo
Lonely dog owners in Beijing and a rented girlfriend in Fujian; the last Oroqen hunters in Heilongjiang and homegrown hip hop in Chengdu; young Chinese in an Indian tech hub and Hong Kong apartments only slightly larger than coffins—these are some...
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08.08.17China’s Pretty Boys Find a New Gig: Propaganda Films
New York Times
Commissioned by the government to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, China’s latest propaganda film was meant to be a patriotic tale about the young soldiers who served their country in its earliest...
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03.30.17China’s Hottest New Boy Band Is Actually Made up of Five Androgynous Girls
Quartz
Acrush is made up of five women mostly in their early twenties, who all have edgy short hairstyles and dress like a bunch of boyish hearthrobs.
Sinica Podcast
03.17.17
Big Daddy Dough: Hip-hop and Macroeconomics in China
from Sinica Podcast
By day, Andrew Dougherty is a macroeconomist who manages a China research team for Capital Group, one of the world’s largest actively managed mutual funds. By night, he is Big Daddy Dough, creator of an album of parody hip-hop songs that explain...
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12.27.16How George Michael’s Wham! Baffled Communist China and Inspired its Youth
Washington Post
It was a culture shock to rival the best of them: the coiffured hair and exuberant dancing of British pop stars, and the Communist Party’s dour uniformity
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12.21.16Could Jane Zhang Become China’s First Global Pop Star?
BBC
Zhang's latest single breaks the mould of China's pop industry and could help her become its first global superstar
ChinaFile Recommends
11.30.16S.Korea Says China is Retaliating Against Its Missile-Defense System by Taking Aim at Korean Dramas
Quartz
China has turned down Korean stars’ applications to perform in the country and has not let any Korean movies screen in the mainland
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10.14.16How Hong Kong's Cantopop Scene Went from Heartbreak to Protest
BBC
Cantonese pop music is formulaic, intensely emotional, strangely addictive and quintessentially Hong Kong. Now it is also becoming political.
Photo Gallery
10.05.16
Beijing’s Skinheads
from Jiemian
Punk, as with most modern Western rock music, took root in China abruptly and unevenly starting in the early 1990s. Beijing skinhead Ma Ke—pictured here with a teardrop temporary tattoo—was born in 1976, around the same time as punk itself. One of...
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06.08.16L’Oreal Is Setting A Dangerous Global Precedent By Bowing to China Over Free Speech
Quartz
Lancome cancels concert to appeal to the mainland, sacrificing freedoms for their parnerships....
ChinaFile Recommends
05.05.16China Turns to Song and Dance in Thanking Workers on Disputed Island
New York Times
One of the most applauded songs of the evening was “This Is the Kind of Man We Want to Marry.”
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05.03.16China Enlists Rap Video for Military Recruitment
Financial Times
China’s military has released a rap music video titled “Battle Declaration” as part of a campaign to lure young recruits.
Sinica Podcast
09.24.15
Hip Hop in China
from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are joined today by Jerry Chan and Matt Sheehan for a look at hip-hop in China. Both guests should be familiar to long-time listeners in Beijing. Jerry has been involved with the local music scene for over a decade and now...
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08.03.15The Melancholy Pop Idol Who Haunts China
New Yorker
Teresa Teng’s influence is particularly powerful in China, which her parents had fled after the revolution.
Media
07.23.15
Why Taylor Swift’s 1989 Merchandise Is Not Going to Get Her Banned in China
On July 20, one of China’s largest e-commerce websites, JD.com, announced that it is partnering with popular American singer Taylor Swift to become the first authorized retailer of her merchandise in China. That news likely wouldn’t have turned...
Media
04.30.15
Will China Ban Katy Perry?
On April 28, American pop singer Katy Perry gave her first-ever concert in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, the self-governing island which mainland China considers to be its sovereign territory. Tense relations between Taiwan and mainland China mean...
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11.26.14As Chinese Duo Perform at American Music Awards, Those at Home Are Skeptical
Wall Street Journal
In an indication of how fragile domestic confidence is in the country’s cultural exports, many Chinese commentators were immediately skeptical of the award’s authenticity. By the next morning on Weibo, the phrase “Chopstick Brothers bought an award...
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01.29.14China’s Global Popstars
BBC
The ‘Earth Music Project’ will train Ruhan Jia who is one of the first popstars to be actively promoted by the government.
Culture
11.01.13
The Sound of China’s Future
It’s high noon in March and the cluttered patio of Maria’s Taco Xpress, the Austin, Texas institution, is gloriously sunny. First time visitor Gan Baishui is moments away from his band’s American debut, but the composer and musician from a fourth-...
Culture
06.18.13
“Walk A Pig on My Bike (2012)”
“Walk A Pig on My Bike (2012),” from their double-disc second album Some Other Scenery (2012), is a new rendition of an earlier song by the Guangzhou-based folk band Wu Tiao Ren. The twenty-one songs from this album (nineteen, including this one,...
Culture
06.18.13
“Water Runs East for Ten Years, Water Runs West for Ten Years”
“Water Runs East for Ten Years, Water Runs West for Ten Years” is a song by the Guangzhou-based folk band Wu Tiao Ren from their first album, A Tale of Haifeng (2009). The songs on this album celebrate the sentiments and everyday lives of small-town...
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02.07.13Celine Dion to Peform at China Central Television’s New Year Gala Show
Hollywood Reporter
The Canadian singer will become the first Western artist to appear on the Chinese state broadcaster’s annual festive program, which is the most-watched TV event in the world.
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10.03.12Why China Lacks Gangnam Style
New Yorker
In China, the Gangnam phenomenon carries a special pique. It has left people asking, Why couldn’t we come up with that? China, after all, dwarfs Korea in political clout, money, and market power, and it cranks out more singers and dancers in a...