ChinaFile Recommends
12.01.16China is Censoring People’s Chats Without Them Even Knowing About It
Quartz
Censorship in WeChat group chats is prevalent, and is done so that the sender isn’t even aware a piece of text has been scrubbed
ChinaFile Recommends
11.30.16Why Facebook’s China Adventure Will Need More than Censorship to Succeed
Guardian
As social network develops tools to restrict users so China will let it in, some experts say it is ‘light years’ behind rivals already in place
Conversation
11.28.16
Should Facebook Self-Censor to Enter the Chinese Market?
The social network Facebook has reportedly developed software to suppress posts from users’ feeds in targeted geographic areas, a feature created to help the giant social media network gain access to China, where it is blocked. Facebook Chief...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.28.16'Social' Feature Turns China’s Alipay Into a Hook-up App
WSJ: China Real Time Report
Alipay update leads to suggestive content flooding the typically staid financial app
ChinaFile Recommends
11.23.16Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back into China
New York Times
The social network has quietly developed software to suppress posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic areas
ChinaFile Recommends
11.22.16German Automaker Chief Removed After ‘Racist Rant’ in China
BBC
German carmaker Daimler has apologized and removed a senior executive from his job after he made racist remarks in a row over parking
Features
11.18.16
Chinese and American City-Dwellers Differ on Trump Win
City-dwellers in China and the United States are among the greatest beneficiaries of the international trade deals President-elect Trump says he’s against, but the two groups responded differently to the outcome of the U.S. election, and the...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.18.16China Presses Tech Firms to Police the Internet
Wall Street Journal
Third-annual World Internet Conference aimed at proselytizing China’s view to global audience
Media
11.09.16
Chinese, Netizens React to President-Elect Trump
When Donald Trump was elected president, the hashtag #TrumpWon was trending on Chinese social media. Chinese Internet users speculated about what Trump’s victory might mean for Sino-American relations, discussed the broader global implications of a...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.08.16Why Chinese Netizens Cheer Trump
To online 'Trump Guards,' the U.S. race pits a corrupt official against a plain-spoken outsider
ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.16The 80-Year-Old Runway Model Reshaping China’s Views on Aging
New York Times
Last year, at 79, Mr. Wang walked the runway for the first time, his physique at his age causing a national sensation
ChinaFile Recommends
11.02.16A Toddler Dies as Her Mother Checks Her Phone, and China Wrings Its Hands
New York Times
The toddler’s death has led to an outpouring of anger on Chinese social media about the dangers of being obsessed with one’s phone
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
10.20.16I Broadcast Myself on the Chinese Web for Two Weeks
In the process, I learned why Chinese millennials can't seem to unplug from the live-streaming craze.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.13.16China’s Internet Child-Safety Policies Could Force Changes at Tech Firms
Wall Street Journal
Tech companies doing business in China might have to adjust operations to comply with proposed rules
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
10.10.16U.S. Presidential Debate Inspires Schadenfreude in China
WSJ: China Real Time Report
Many Chinese took to social media to heap scorn on both candidates
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
09.29.16China’s Streaming Craze Launches a Billion Shooting Stars
Wall Street Journal
The owner of streaming app Inke is China’s newest unicorn thanks to a 19-fold increase in value
ChinaFile Recommends
09.22.16Mystery of China’s ‘Ghost Uber Drivers’
Financial Times
An eruption of creepy faces on driver profiles has spooked potential passengers
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...
Media
05.20.16
The Chinese Trolls Who Pump Out 488 Million Fake Social Media Posts
They are the most hated group in Chinese cyberspace. They are, to hear their ideological opponents tell it, “fiercely ignorant,” keen to “insert themselves in everything,” and preen as if they were “spokesmen for the country.” Westerners bemoan...
Sinica Podcast
04.19.16
Public Opinion with Chinese Characteristics
from Sinica Podcast
The immense popularity of social media has afforded China watchers a terrific window onto public opinion in China. In recent years, a slew of English-language websites have emerged to interpret the various trends and phenomena, discourse, and...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.05.16China Censors Mentions of ‘Panama Papers’ Leaks
New York Times
The names of relatives of several top leaders are found in the documents exposing offshore companies, but most citizens will never hear of the news.
Media
04.05.16
Chinese Censors Rush to Make ‘Panama Papers’ Disappear
On April 3, the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit International Committee of Investigative Journalists dropped what struck many as a bombshell: news that a leaked trove of 11.5 million previously secret files from Panama-based law firm Mossack...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.18.16On Social Media in China, Size 0 Doesn’t Make the Cut
New York Times
Women—and some men—are boasting that they are paper thin by posting photographs of their waists behind a vertical piece of A4 paper.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.05.16Beauty and the East: China's Plastic Surgery Boom
Wall Street Journal
China’s social media and selfie obsessions are creating a new vanity craze and a market for cosmetic surgery.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.03.16‘Eyes on China’: Illuminating Life Across a Changing Country
New York Times
Two photographers living in China set up a collective Instagram account.
Media
01.05.16
China’s Top 5 Censored Posts in 2015
Chinese President Xi Jinping rounded off 2015 by posting his first message on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, in the form of a new year’s greeting to the People’s Liberation Army. His post received 52,000 comments, mostly fawning messages of...
Green Space
12.03.15
Smog and Imagination
The last few days of November, air pollution was back in the headlines and social media feeds of millions of Chinese. Here are a few highlights:The creative WeChat post “Beijing Smog: Use Your Imagination When You Go Out,” shows a series of photos...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.03.15China's Rich Face Criticism After Mark Zuckerberg's Charity Pledge
International Business Times
China has a fast growing number of super-rich -- it created 242 billionaires in the past year alone.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.02.15It’s Complicated: Mark Zuckerberg’s Donation Spurs Philanthropy Debate in China
WSJ: China Real Time Report
Some Chinese Internet users are asking: is it a kind-hearted gift or a tax dodge?
Media
11.27.15
‘Personal Media’ in China Takes a Hit From Pre-Publication Censorship
Observers have long thought that Chinese authorities censor the media depending on type: the censorship of traditional media is primarily conducted in advance, with a thorough inspection of news and discussion before publication; new media, in...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.23.15China Shuts Down Service For Some Phones With Foreign Messaging Apps
Verge
As mobile users try to evade censorship in China through software, the government appears to be trying a new technique to head off such attempts.
Media
11.20.15
China Censors Online Outcry After ISIS Execution
On November 18, the Islamic State (IS) released photos of what it claimed were two executed hostages. The photos, appearing in the terrorist group’s English-language magazine Dabiq, depict two men with bloodied faces, the word “executed” emblazoned...
Media
10.29.15
Ai Weiwei Doesn’t Need Anyone to Give Him Legos
The noted Chinese artist and perennial dissident Ai Weiwei recently announced that Lego, a Denmark-based company, had refused his request to purchase more than a million of the tiny toy bricks for an Australian display of his work “Trace,” a...
Media
10.13.15
Chinese Censors Are Giving North Korea a P.R. Makeover
On October 10, Liu Yunshan, a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee and one of the seven most powerful men in China, paid a visit to North Korea to observe a massive parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Worker’...
Media
10.01.15
When Chinese Internet Users Call Xi Jinping Daddy
Internet censorship in China has inspired the invention of a menagerie of online creatures: the river crab, the elephant of truth, the monkey-snake. Each beast’s name plays on a word or phrase that has at some point angered Chinese Internet users,...
Media
08.27.15
Chinese Media Jumps on Tragic Virginia Shooting
On the morning of August 26, a reporter and a cameraman for a local Virginia television station were fatally shot during a live television interview. The alleged gunman, now dead, apparently shot himself before being apprehended by police.The...
Media
08.17.15
4 Questions Chinese Want Answered After Deadly Tianjin Blast
Around 11:30 p.m., Beijing time, on Wednesday, at least two fearsome blasts in quick succession rocked the large northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin. Originating at or near a hazardous materials warehouse near the city’s downtown, the...
Media
08.04.15
Beijing’s Winter Doldrums
On July 31, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing, the arid northern capital of a country with little tradition of winter sports. Beijing will be the first city in history to host both the winter games and...
Media
07.02.15
Who Would China Vote for in 2016?
As 2016 draws nearer, a cascade of mostly Republican presidential hopefuls have announced their entry into the U.S. presidential race. Until a successor to current President Barack Obama is selected in November 2016, Americans can count on an...
Sinica Podcast
06.23.15
The Brother Orange Saga
from Sinica Podcast
The story started when a Buzzfeed editor lost his iPhone in an East Village bar in February of last year and blossomed into the Sino-American romance of the century, and probably the most up-lifting and altogether unlikely China story that we can...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.19.15China’s Annual Dog-Eating Festival Prompts Social Media Firestorm
Washington Post
At a solstice festival in China 10,000 canines are said to be beaten, killed and cooked for human consumption.
Media
04.21.15
This Chart Explains Everything You Need to Know About Chinese Internet Censorship
What goes through a Chinese web user’s head the moment before he or she hits the “publish” button? Pundits, scholars, and everyday netizens have spent years trying to parse the (ever-shifting) rules of the Chinese Internet. Although Chinese...
Media
03.20.15
China Has Its Own Anti-Vaxxers—Blame the Internet
While health officials in the United States and parts of Europe wrestle with a growing anti-vaccination, or “anti-vaxxer” movement, China is dealing with a less organized but similarly serious fear of immunizations. Social media reveals traces of...
Books
03.05.15
Has the American Media Misjudged China
Thirty-five years after China's opening to the world, some of the key assumptions that have guided coverage are being tested by the presidency of Xi Jinping. This book is must reading for anyone involved in U.S.-Chinese relations or for anyone who is just plain curious about how the assumptions that have guided American media coverage of China are now being challenged by the presidency of Xi Jinping. He has a very different vision of his country's future than the one often presented in some media accounts. —William J. Holstein {chop}
Media
03.03.15
The Word That Broke the Chinese Internet
It might be gibberish, but it’s also a sign of the times. The word duang, pronounced “dwong,” is spreading like wildfire throughout China’s active Internet—even though 1.3 billion Chinese people still haven’t figured out what it means. In fact, its...
The NYRB China Archive
02.09.15
China: Inventing a Crime
from New York Review of Books
In late January, Chinese authorities announced that they are considering formal charges against Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers, who has been in detention since last May. Pu’s friends fear that even a life sentence is...
Media
01.13.15
‘Where’s Our Unity March?’ China Wants to Know
The January 7 terrorist attack on satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead has mostly inspired unity in the West, but the massive march held in its aftermath is spurring controversy, and even some disdain, in China. While the...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.09.15Drawing the News: Wo Shi Chali (Je Suis Charlie)
China Digital Times
Chinese cartoonists and netizens have responded quickly to the slaying of cartoonists and editors at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo yesterday. Masked gunmen entered the offices of the journal and fired automatic weapons at staff in an...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.14Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make It Clear He's Cool with China
Huffington Post
Lu Wei, the Chinese Internet czar who heads a censorship system that keeps many popular American sites—including, of course, Facebook—out of China, was touring American tech companies recently. Chinese media reported that when he arrived at...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.14China’s Lost Generation Finds Itself in Ukraine
Bloomberg
A working class high-school graduate who scored abysmally on China's college entrance exam, Mei now owns his own business, claims title to three-quarters of an acre of land, lives in a split-level house, and is married to an eighteen-year-old...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.05.14Thousands of Local Internet Propaganda Emails Leaked
China Digital Times
The archive includes correspondence, photos, directories of “Internet commentators” (网评员), summaries of commentary work, and records of the online activities of specific individuals, among other documents. Over 2,700 emails are included in the...
ChinaFile Recommends
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...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.14In China, Even Creating a Pollution Tracking App Is a Risky Business
Tech in Asia
It was mid-October 2011, and the air quality in Beijing was quite bad, as you may imagine. It came to my mind that if we could check the air quality on our phones and receive pollution notifications, that would be quite helpful and handy. After some...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.07.14Ali Baba’s Cave and Pandora’s Box
China Media Project
When Lu Wei — the man who reportedly led the crackdown on the “Big V” Weibo account holders last year — was asked at a press conference why sites like Facebook (which is blocked in China) had been “shut down,” he responded with a homespun metaphor.
Media
11.05.14
Tim Cook Coming Out Has Turned China Into a Nation of Fifth-Graders
"Let me be clear," wrote Apple CEO Tim Cook in a Bloomberg Businessweek article published on October 30. "I'm proud to be gay."Within an hour of the article's publication, Cook's first public announcement of his...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.14Manual on How to Spot a Spy Circulates in an Increasingly Wary China
New York Times
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Or an American spy. Or a “hostile foreign force.” So says the “China Folk Counterespionage Manual,” a “how to spot a spy” guide circulating on the Internet.
Media
10.03.14
Under Different Umbrellas
“Dozens of mainlanders were taken away by the police because they openly supported Occupy Central and at least ten of them have been detained…They are in Jiangxi, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, etc,” Hong Kong-based blogger and...