Culture
10.02.15In Zhang Yimou’s ‘Coming Home’ History is Muted But Not Silent
Coming Home, directed by the celebrated Zhang Yimou and released in the U.S. last week, begins as a man escapes a labor camp in China’s northwest and tries to return home. But he is captured when he and his wife attempt to meet, after their daughter...
Media
10.02.15Meet China’s Salman Rushdie
On a warm late afternoon in June, I sat with Perhat Tursun as he slowly exhaled a puff of smoke from a blue cigarette with shiny gold trim. Arrayed on the pale lace tablecloth before us was an assortment of nuts, sunflower seeds, and wine. The...
Media
10.01.15U.S. Presidential Candidates on China
Our Presidential Quotes tracker keeps you up to date on what the candidates are saying about China, and where and when they say it.
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10.01.15Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China’s Rich Kids
Bloomberg
The fuerdai, China’s second-generation rich kids, are the most loathed group in the country.
Media
10.01.15When 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
09.28.15What’s China’s Mood Under Xi? New Data Gives a Glimpse
China, under the presidency of Xi Jinping, has invited a number of breathless pronouncements about the state of the country. Chinese media regularly conjure the “Chinese Dream,” one of Xi’s favored phrases, which means whatever readers want it to...
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09.28.15Rights Group Demands Chinese Supporters of Hong Kong Democracy Be Freed
Reuters
Amnesty International called for the release of eight mainland Chinese activists.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.28.15China Angered By Hillary Clinton Tweet on Women's Rights
BBC
China has reacted furiously at Hillary Clinton's recent comments about China's record on women's rights.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.23.15He Said What? China's Xi Jinping Makes 'House of Cards' Joke
CNN
Xi Jinping did something unusual, almost unheard of, for a Chinese President: He cracked a joke. In public.
Conversation
09.22.15Xi Jinping’s Message to America
China’s President Xi Jinping addressed an audience of more than 700 American businesspeople in Seattle on Tuesday evening on the first stop on his first state visit to the United States. Regular ChinaFile Contributors who watched the speech offer...
Conversation
09.22.15Can the U.S. & China Make Peace in Cyberspace?
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in the United States today on his first state visit. Xi will address a group of American business leadersin Seattle. High on their list of concerns about trade with China is cyber hacking, cyber espionage and...
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09.21.15ChinaFile 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...
The China Africa Project
09.19.15The News Media’s Mixed Record in Covering China-Africa Ties
News organizations from across Africa and around the world are devoting more resources to covering China’s engagement on the continent. The overall quantity of coverage has undoubtedly increased over the past decade. The key question, though, is...
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09.18.15Controversy Brewing Around China’s Oscar Submission
Hollywood Reporter
Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke revealed that producers are lobbying for his latest feature, Mountains May Depart, to be submitted.
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09.17.15China’s Fast Growing Film Industry
Bloomberg
The discussion on the expansion of the entertainment industry in China and differences between audiences in the U.S. and Asia
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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.
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09.16.15China Looks to Hollywood
Diplomat
Chinese firms are stepping up their investments in Hollywood, to protect their own market share.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.15.15China's Biggest, Yet Most Unlikely Film of This Summer
Mashable
As of Sept. 12,Monster Hunthad grossed a whopping RMB 2.428 billion (US$380.95 million).
The NYRB China Archive
09.12.15‘I Try to Talk Less’: A Conversation with Ai Weiwei and Liao Yiwu
from New York Review of Books
In late July, Chinese authorities renewed travel privileges for conceptual artist and political activist Ai Weiwei, ending a five-year prohibition following his arrest in 2011. He promptly flew to Munich and then Berlin, where he has accepted a...
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09.11.15State Council Approves New Draft of Film Industry Promotion Law
Yibada
The law is now subject to discussion and approval by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.
Media
09.10.15Chinese Web Users Grieve for Syrian Toddler—and Blame America
A photo of Syrian three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach, who drowned as his family attempted to flee their war-torn homeland by crossing the Mediterranean Sea to find refuge in Greece, has stunned viewers across Europe and the...
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09.10.15Movie Review: ‘Wolf Totem’ Offers Majestic Vistas and Real Wolves
Washington Post
The Movie lures and repels lovers of nature into the theater.
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09.09.15Chinese State Media Blasts ‘Stereotypical’ and ‘Prejudiced’ BBC Documentary
Hong Kong Economic Journal
China’s state media Xinhua has lashed out at a recent documentary series by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Culture
09.09.15The Met Goes to China
In July, while in New York, I toured The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s much buzzed about “China: Through the Looking Glass,” a visually stunning multimedia exhibit that showcases the varied ways that Western fashion designers have been inspired by...
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09.08.15‘Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation’ Revs to Record Opening Day in China
Hollywood Reporter
The Tom Cruise movie scored the top opening of all time for a 2D Hollywood title with $18.5 million on Tuesday.
Media
09.03.15Who Is Xi Jinping? Introducing the Asia Society Podcast
from Asia Blog
Three years after Xi Jinping took control of China’s Communist Party and assumed the country’s leadership, he has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful people. But his tenure has also raised uncomfortable questions. Is he a reformer bent on...
Media
09.03.15Chinese Web Users Aren’t Blaming Detained Journalist for Market Panic
China’s stock markets have been in free-fall for some time. Now, so is a financial journalist who had the temerity to write about them. On August 31, Chinese journalist Wang Xiaolu confessed on state-run China Central Television (CCTV) to writing a...
Features
09.02.15Parading the People’s Republic
from China Heritage Quarterly
In light of the September 3, 2015, mega military parade held at Tiananmen Square in Beijing both to mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945 and to acclaim the achievements of Xi Jinping, China’s Chairman of...
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09.01.15As Economy Falters, Military Parade Offers Chance to Burnish China’s Image
New York Times
China celebrates a new national holiday to honor the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Media
08.31.15Netanyahu, Shanghai, and the Communist Party’s Forbidden History
On August 26, the Israeli Embassy in China posted a one-minute video to its official account on Weibo, China’s huge microblogging platform, thanking the coastal Chinese city of Shanghai for its role sheltering roughly 20,000 Jews fleeing persecution...
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08.31.15Not for Kids: Forbidden City’s Adult Coloring Book
Wall Street Journal
Psychologists have hailed coloring as a good relaxation technique, and some have likened it to meditation.
Sinica Podcast
08.31.15A ‘China Watcher’s China Watcher’ Decamps
from Sinica Podcast
As anyone who reads the Sinocism newsletter knows, Bill Bishop is among the most plugged-in people in Beijing with an uncanny ability to figure out what is actually happening in the halls of power. But as casual readers may not be aware, he is also...
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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.
Media
08.27.15Chinese 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
08.26.15Mapping Fallout From ‘Black Monday’: Who Was Hardest Hit?
August 24, which some have already dubbed “Black Monday,” was not a kind day to global equity markets. The rout began with a massive sell-off in China, where the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.49 percent in just one day. Those losses...
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08.25.15Who Loses Most from Chaos in China—And Some Possible Silver Linings
Washington Post
The panic may weaken demand for U.S. exports. But that could make some goods cheaper for consumers.
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08.25.15Donald Trump: No State Dinner—Only Big Mac—for China’s President
CNN
If elected, Trump vowed to eschew the lavish dinner Xi Jinping will get in Washington from President Obama.
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08.25.15Warner Bros. in Talks to Make Movies in China
Wall Street Journal
The joint venture would produce local-language films for Asian audience.
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08.24.15Apple Stock Recovers After Tim Cook Email Praises China Sale
New York Times
CEO Tim Cook emailed “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer to say the App Store in China had its best performance of the year in the last two weeks.
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08.24.15Science-Fiction Prize Is Awarded to Chinese Writer for First Time
New York Times
The Chinese writer Liu Cixin has won the 2015 Hugo Award, the first time the prestigious prize has gone to a Chinese writer.
Caixin Media
08.18.15Official 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
08.17.154 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
08.13.15Sorry China, the Internet You’re Looking for Does Not Exist
The long arm of China’s massive internal security apparatus just reached further into the heart of the country’s web. On August 4, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that it would embed law enforcement officers at major Internet companies...
Culture
08.11.15Japan’s Soft Power Leader in China is a Fat Blue Cartoon Cat
On July 28, costumed in vibrant colors, throngs of fans flocked toward the early morning light of Victoria Harbor, queueing outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center for the last day of the 17th Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong. The...
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08.11.15China Devalues Its Currency as Worries Rise About Economic Slowdown
New York Times
The clearest sign yet of Beijing's concern about falling short of its goal of roughly 7 percent economic growth.
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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.
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08.10.15China Read Emails of Top U.S. Officials
NBC News
First codenamed "Dancing Panda" by U.S. officials was detected in April 2010, according to a top secret NSA briefing from 2014.
Viewpoint
08.07.15Here’s What’s Wrong With Most Commentary on the Beijing 2022 Olympics
Upon hearing that Beijing would be hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, we wondered what the Chinese government was thinking. The decision seemed counterintuitive, to say the least: For one thing, it barely snows in Beijing, or even in Zhangjiakou, the...
Media
08.05.15Beijing’s Ban on Smoking Is Actually (Sort of) Working
They rarely trash hotel rooms or boast about drugs, but Chinese rock stars could at least be counted on to smoke. Now even that’s starting to change in the face of a smoking ban in China’s capital that shows little sign of burning out, almost two...
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08.04.15Alibaba Names Former Goldman Sachs Executive as President
New York Times
Alibaba on Tuesday named J. Michael Evans, who already serves on its board, as its president.
Media
08.04.15Beijing’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...
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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.
Two Way Street
08.01.15China’s Foreign Policy Isn’t Transparent? You’ve Got to Be Kidding
from Two Way Street
In her recent article, “What China’s Lack of Transparency Means for U.S. Policy,” U.S.-China relations expert Susan Shirk caused a stir when she argued that China’s “lack of transparency” around public policy making, defense, national security, and...
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07.31.15China’s Naked Emperors
New York Times
By trying to control the market China's rulers show that despite 25 years of success they have no idea what they’re doing.
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07.31.15ChinaFile Recommends
07.30.15In China, Michael Jordan Does Not Hold Rights to His Own Name
Quartz
Jordan first sued Qiaodan Sports in 2012 for using his Chinese name, his team number 23, and a jumping man logo to sell basketball shoes and jerseys.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.30.15China’s Film Industry Is Gaining on Hollywood
Businessweek
Chinese audiences are growing, more theaters are being built, and the movies are getting better.
Media
07.28.15Clickbait Nationalism
On July 16, the lower house of the Japanese Parliament passed a set of new security legislation that would grant Japan limited power to engage in foreign conflicts for the first time since its defeat in World War II. Despite domestic public...
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07.23.15Suicide Bombings in China: Beyond Terrorism
Diplomat
A suicide bomber attacked a park in Heze in China’s Shandong province, killing two (including the bomber) and injuring 24, with three people receiving “relatively severe” injuries.