ChinaFile Recommends
11.16.15‘Exiled’ Chinese Journalist Leaks Huge List of Censored Terms
Hong Kong Free Press
A Chinese journalist who is now living in exile in India has handed a large list of what he says are sensitive terms censored in China to Radio Free Asia, a US-backed broadcaster.
Media
11.12.15
Good Journalist, Bad Journalist
As China marked its annual Journalists’ Day over the weekend, proclaiming the importance of “correct news ideals,” even jaded New Yorkers stopped in their tracks and took notice. How could they not? The message beamed over 7th Avenue on Times Square...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.30.15China Ranks Last of 65 Nations in Internet Freedom
New York Times
Chinese officials will be able to impose a prison sentence of up to seven years on a person convicted of creating and spreading “false information” online.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.29.15Yan Lianke: Understand the Enemy
Huffington Post
“I think that my fate cannot be separated from literature.”
Culture
10.07.15
Jia Zhangke on Finding Freedom in China on Film
Jia Zhangke is among the most celebrated filmmakers China has ever produced—outside of China. His 2013 film, A Touch of Sin, a weaving-together of four tales of violence ripped from modern-day newspaper headlines, won the Best Screenplay award at...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.28.15China’s Think-Tank Great Leap Forward
Council on Foreign Relations
Governments, universities, and non-governmental actors have all jumped on the bandwagon of growing and creating think tanks.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.19.15Western Media ‘Welcome’ in China, Xi Tells Murdoch
South China Morning Post
Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Rupert Murdoch that Western media organisations are “welcome” in China, despite the continued blocking of numerous foreign websites for their reporting on the country. “(We) welcome foreign media and...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.17.15The Chinese Government Is Censoring A Documentary About Mothers Who Love Their Gay Kids
Quartz
The upcoming court case of a filmmaker from Beijing, stands out.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.11.15Chinese Society ‘Very Fragile,’ Warns Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei
CNN
Suffocated by censorship, Chinese society is “very fragile,” warned dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.08.15The Important Anniversary China Won’t Celebrate in 2016
Diplomat
May 16, 1966 marked the start of the Cultural Revolution—but don’t except China to publicize the anniversary.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.08.15China Accused of Fraud as Government-Backed Film Outperforms Terminator: Genisys
Guardian
The state allegedly offered money for bogus box-office data for “The Hundred Regiments Offensive.”
ChinaFile Recommends
09.08.15I’m with the Banned: China Blocks Bon Jovi Gigs
Guardian
U.S. group were due to perform first China shows next week, but previous use of Dalai Lama image may have prompted officia intervention.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.31.15China Punishes Nearly 200 Over ‘Rumors’ About Stocks, Blasts and Parade
New York Times
The moves indicate the political sensitivities aggravated in recent weeks by several volatile issues.
Culture
08.20.15
Banned in China, Independent Chinese Films Come to New York
Three years ago this week I watched the 9th Beijing Independent Film Festival crumble under the weight of official fear—fear that the gritty low-budget, experimental dramas and documentaries screening in a remote Beijing suburb reflected a touch...
Reports
08.18.15
The Politburo’s Predicament
Freedom House
Drawing on an analysis of hundreds of official documents, censorship directives, and human rights reports, as well as some 30 expert interviews, the study finds that the overall degree of repression has increased under the new leadership. Of 17...
Caixin Media
08.18.15
Official Stonewalling on Tianjin Explosions Sparks Outcry
While victims of the Tianjin explosions are still waiting to be told why their loved ones died or, how safe it is to go outside, officials remained evasive in the sixth press conference regarding the disaster.In response to a question from a Caixin...
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...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.10.15China TV Anchor Bi Fujian to be Punished for Mao Insult
BBC
He committed “a serious violation of political discipline” mocking the man who led the Cultural Revolution and sparked a crippling famine.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.07.15China’s Liberal Academics Fear Growing Censorship
Guardian
“It is getting worse,” said Qiao, 45, whose public advocacy of western-style democracy and civil rights made him a thorn in the government’s side. “Since [Xi] came to power the government has placed tighter controls on ideological research and...
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...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.03.15For China’s Gay Men, Beijing Park Offers Haven
Los Angeles Times
Though illegal, Chinese media regularly report on gay home weddings and gay couples getting marriage certificates in the U.S.
ChinaFile Recommends
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.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.27.15China Uses ‘Picking Quarrels’ Charge to Cast a Wider Net Online
New York Times
Artists, essayists, lawyers, bloggers and others deemed to be online troublemakers have been hauled into police stations and investigated or imprisoned for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that was once confined to physical...
Media
07.20.15
Taming the Flood
In August 1975, Typhoon Nina, one of the most powerful tropical storms on record, surged inland from the Taiwan Strait, causing floods so catastrophic they overwhelmed dam networks around the city of Zhumadian in China’s Henan province. When Banqiao...
Sinica Podcast
07.13.15
Good Riddance, Monsieur Epstein
from Sinica Podcast
The hosts of the Sinica Podcast are not surprised that Gady Epstein is moving on. We used to buy the papers for his “Telegrams from the Orient”, but then he took that Economist gig and his productivity plummeted and it has become hard to even...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.12.15Chinese Hackers Circumvent Popular Web Privacy Tools
New York Times
The attackers compromised websites frequented by Chinese journalists as well as China’s Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.
Viewpoint
06.11.15
Why I Publish in China
A couple of weeks ago, I received a request from a New York Times reporter to talk about publishing in China. The topic has been in the news lately, with the BookExpo in New York, where Chinese publishers were the guests of honor. In May, the PEN...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.10.15ChinaFile Recommends
06.09.15China Blacklists 38 Cartoons, Violence, Porn Cited
Hollywood Reporter
Among the banned are a 2014 animated TV series set in a Tokyo after a terrorist attack has destroyed the city.
Media
06.09.15
Chinese Censorship of Western Books Is Now Normal. Where’s the Outrage?
In September 2014, I was commissioned by the New York-based free speech advocacy group PEN American Center to investigate how Western authors were navigating the multibillion-dollar Chinese publishing world and its massive, but opaque, censorship...
Sinica Podcast
06.08.15
Writers: Heroes in China?
from Sinica Podcast
If you happen to live in the anglophone world and aren’t closely tied to China by blood or professional ties, chances are that what you believe to be true about this country is heavily influenced by the opinions of perhaps one hundred other people,...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.05.15Survivor Accounts Raise Questions About Yangtze Ship’s Final Moments
New York Times
Four days after the ship, the Oriental Star, flipped over in a ferocious storm, leaving 442 dead or missing.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.04.15China Is Exporting its Tiananmen Censorship, and We Are All Victims
Foreign Policy
Twenty six years after the killing of student protesters, the code of silence is spreading worldwide.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.04.15China Tries To Put A More Positive Spin On Cruise Ship Sinking
NPR
Dozens are confirmed dead and the number is expected to pass 400.
Culture
06.01.15
Chinese Writers and Chinese Reality
My first encounter with Liu Zhenyun was in 2003. At the time, cell phones had just become available in China and they were complicating people’s relationships. I witnessed a couple break up because of the secrets stored on a phone. I watched people...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.27.15Should Authors Shun or Cooperate With Chinese Censors?
New York Times
A PEN American Center report found some books were expurgated by Chinese censors without the authors knowledge.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.26.15Corrupting the Chinese Language
New York Times
The author fears Orwell’s prediciton: “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
Conversation
05.21.15
Censorship and Publishing in China
This week, a new PEN American Center report “Censorship and Conscience: Foreign Authors and the Challenge of Chinese Censorship,” by Alexa Olesen, draws fresh attention to a perennial problem for researchers, scholars, and creative writers trying to...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.21.15PLA Daily Warns of Internet’s Revolutionary Potential
Xinhua
The military should not only safeguard traditional national sovereignty and security, but also “protect ideological and political security on the invisible battleground of the Internet”.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.20.15Liu Xiaobo Locked Up in China, Locked Out of Translation of Paul Auster Novel
New York Times
Liu Xiaobo’s arrest was cut from the Chinese translation of Auster’s novel without his knowledge.
Reports
05.20.15
Censorship and Conscience
Alexa Olesen
PEN International
In this report, PEN American Center (PEN) examines how foreign authors in particular are navigating the heavily censored Chinese book industry. China is one of the largest book publishing markets in the world, with total revenue projected to exceed...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.19.15Why Hong Kong is Clamping Down on Creative Writing
Guardian
The decision to close City University’s MFA program is plainly intended to limit free expression.
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...
The NYRB China Archive
04.29.15
An American Hero in China
from New York Review of Books
One night in September, three hundred people crowded into the basement auditorium of an office tower in Beijing to hear a discussion between two of China’s most popular writers. One was Liu Yu, a thirty-eight-year-old political scientist and blogger...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.28.15Three Days in Beijing with the Global Dissident Elite
Fusion
Poitras, Oscar-winning Citizenfourdirector, came to Beijing to shoot a film about Appelbaum and Ai meeting and making art.
Sinica Podcast
04.27.15
Nationalism and Censorship
from Sinica Podcast
Christopher Cairns joins the hosts of Sinica for a discussion of his forthcoming paper, co-authored with Allen Carlson, scheduled for publication in China Quarterly. Why are we so interested in this topic? Because Cairns and his colleagues at...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.21.1510 Most Censored Countries
Committee to Protect Journalists
For more than 10 years, China has been among the top 3 jailers of journalists in the world, a distinction that it is unlikely to lose soon.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.14.15The Netflix of China Is Invading the US With Smartphones
Wired
LeTV launched its Internet video streaming service three years before Netflix (2004 versus 2007).
ChinaFile Recommends
04.13.15China Releases 5 Women’s Rights Activists Detained for Weeks
New York Times
Police released five female activists detained after campaigning against sexual harassment on public transport.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.10.15TV Presenter Insults Mao at Private Dinner
Guardian
CCTV is investigating a top presenters after he was caught calling Mao a “son of a bitch” at a private dinner.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.05.15China Escalates Hollywood Partnerships, Aiming to Compete One Day
New York Times
Chinese studios are moving up the value chain, helping to develop, design and produce world-class films and animated features.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.19.15China’s Biggest Anti-Censorship Service is Under Attack
Variety
GreatFire.org has been under an unprecedented denial-of-service attack, receiving more than 2 billion requests per hour.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.19.15Yahoo to Shutter China Office and Cut “Around 350” Jobs
BBC
The move not a huge surprise as Yahoo has been retreating since 2013 when it ended email servies in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.17.15The Constant Adaptations of China’s Great Firewall
Wall Street Journal
Firewall-hopping technologies see activist programmers and Chinese censors engaged in a cat-and-mouse game.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.09.15Foreign Non-Government Groups in China Fear Clampdown Under New Law
Reuters
The draft law stops NGOs violating “Chinese society’s moral customs.”
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}
ChinaFile Recommends
03.05.15China’s Premier Vows to Promote Film, TV Industries, “Core Socialist Values”
Hollywood Reporter
Li Keqiang pledging to promote entertainment industry as delegates renewed calls for film classification system.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.04.15How China Uses J-Visas to Punish International Media for Critical Coverage
Committee to Protect Journalists
A new report finds Chinese authorities are “treating journalistic accreditation as a privilege rather than a professional right.”
ChinaFile Recommends
03.03.15Beijing Quietly Curbs Discussion of Documentary on Air Pollution
Wall Street Journal
Censors stepped in to tamp down the buzz around an air-pollution documentary that drew 100 million views.