Depth of Field
12.31.19‘Nowhere to Dock’
from Yuanjin Photo
In 2019, Depth of Field showcased stories covering a range of topics: Shi Yangkun’s nostaglic exploration of China’s last collective villages, Zhu Lingyu’s careful and artisitic portrayal of survivors of sexual violence, and cities seen through the...
The NYRB China Archive
06.18.18‘Ruling Through Ritual’: An Interview with Guo Yuhua
from New York Review of Books
Guo Yuhua is one of China’s best-known sociologists and most incisive government critics. A professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, she has devoted her career to researching human suffering in Chinese society, especially that of peasants, the...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.20.18China Wages War on Funeral Strippers
Telegraph
China has launched its latest crackdown against a phenomenon which just won’t seem to die in rural areas - funeral strippers.
Features
09.08.17A Drag Queen for the Dearly Departed
In the good old days, about three thousand years ago, people really knew how to mourn the dead. That was back in the Zhou dynasty, when there was no laughing in the dead person’s house, no sighing while eating, and no singing while walking down a...
Sinica Podcast
07.17.17Jerome A. Cohen on Human Rights and Law in China
from Sinica Podcast
Professor Jerome A. Cohen began studying the law of what was then called “Red China” in the early 1960s, at a time when the country was closed off, little understood, and much maligned in the West.Legal institutions were just developing at that time...
Caixin Media
07.07.17Court 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...
Media
04.19.17ChinaFile Presents: Ian Johnson on ‘The Souls of China’
On April 13, ChinaFile and The New York Review of Books co-hosted the launch of author Ian Johnson’s new book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao at the Asia Society’s New York headquarters. Johnson discussed the book with Ian...
Books
11.04.16Land of Fish and Rice
The lower Yangtze region, or Jiangnan, with its modern capital Shanghai, has been known since ancient times as a “land of fish and rice.” For centuries, local cooks have harvested the bounty of its lakes, rivers, fields, and mountains to create a cuisine renowned for its delicacy and beauty. In Land of Fish and Rice, Fuchsia Dunlop draws on years of study and exploration to present the recipes, techniques, and ingredients of the Jiangnan kitchen. You will be inspired to try classic dishes such as Beggar’s Chicken and sumptuous Dongpo Pork, as well as fresh, simple recipes such as Clear-Steamed Sea Bass and Fresh Soybeans with Pickled Greens. Evocatively written and featuring stunning recipe photography, this is an important new work celebrating one of China’s most fascinating culinary regions. —W.W. Norton{chop}
Green Space
05.11.16The 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...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.09.16Chinese New Year Fireworks So Dangerous That Only Few Get to Witness
ABC
In Nuanquan village, there is traditional a pyrotechnic display so unique and dangerous that it is still only found here.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.21.15Respect Your Elders: Confucian Kindergartens Catch On in China
WSJ: China Real Time Report
The Party is now introducing traditional culture classes in state-run kindergartens and other levels of schooling.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.04.15No Coins, No Red Faces: Apps Change Chinese Attitudes to Splitting Bills
CNN
Splitting the bill is a relatively new idea to most Chinese, but now it's being embraced by cash-strapped young people.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.01.15Xi Jinping Forever
Foreign Policy
Is China’s increasingly powerful president angling to break tradition and extend his rule indefinitely?
Conversation
11.12.14Xi Jinping’s Culture Wars
Given China’s tightening restrictions on film, TV, art, writing, and journalism, and the reverberations from President Xi Jinping’s recent speech on culture, we asked contributors why they think Beijing has decided to ramp up its involvement in the...
Features
02.14.14It’s Hard to Say ‘I Love You’ in Chinese
“We didn’t say ‘I love you,’” said Dr. Kaiping Peng, Associate Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley. I’d ventured over to his China office on the campus of Beijing’s mighty Tsinghua University to talk to him...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.06.14China’s Way to Happiness
New York Review of Books
The return of collective religious traditions is part of Chinese people's search for meaning and stability.
Viewpoint
02.04.14In Slickness and in Wealth
Under the harsh glare of a studio spotlight, bride-to-be Tong turns her face until it is almost completely in shadow. Tong is posing for a three-day session of wedding photographs at Shanghai’s premier Princess Studio, where couples spend between 3,...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.30.13For Chinese Women, Marriage Depends On Right ‘Bride Price’
NPR
Most young men getting married in China today are expected to fork out, often providing an apartment, sometimes a car and a betrothal gift, too. Things were much easier when his parents got married four decades ago.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.11.13Changing China Through Mandarin
Seeing Red in China
Mandarin under totalitarianism is brimming with tautologies, self-aggrandizement and gangster logic, it has no use, no mercy, no reason, no fun, and no taste; it is reduced to a language game that has no connection with reality.