"If China is developing on their side of the
A Wordless Elegy for China’s War Dead
Mr. Wang explained why he wanted to write a requiem about a war that ended 70 years ago.
Xi'an City Wall: How China Turned A Military Site Into A Unique Park
Xi'an, China's 637-year-old city wall is a relatively new kid on the block.
You Can't Understand China Unless You Know How the Communist Party Thinks
The CPC came into being in 1921, almost a century ago.
Tibet, Taiwan and China – A Complex Nexus
Recent developments in cross-strait relations raise interesting questions for Tibet’s leadership in exile.
Ever Wonder How China Got Back Into International Diplomacy After the Cultural Revolution?
China’s successful entry into the international scene after the Cultural Revolution bears lessons for other pariah states.
Would India Dare Risk Antagonizing China?
I found a striking consensus about the relative stability between the two giant Asian neighbors.
Hong Kong May Be A Little Insecure, But It's No 'Slave'
I don't much care to weigh in on the subject of Hong Kong remaining a place where non-Asians are able to prosper.
China Is Trying to Warn Taiwan Voters
The possibility of conflict between China and Taiwan is dangerous to the world’s security.
Why 2,500-Year-Old Tale Gives Ma Hope for Chinese Democracy
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said history gives him hope for political change on the Communist-ruled mainland.
McDonald's China Heritage Outlet Criticised
The opening of a McDonald's outlet in the home of former Taiwanese leader Chiang Ching-kuo in Hangzhou, China has sparked a controversy.
India-China Talks Fail To Make Progress on Border Dispute
"This is the highest level defense delegation to visit India in the recent years. The visit signifies the enhanced defense exchanges between India and China."
China Tired of the Boiler Suit
“Why can people who glory in color and fun and variety wear a uniform of boiler suits that brings drabness and dreariness to every gathering?”
Q. and A.: Ezra F. Vogel on China’s Shifting Relations With Japan and Taiwan
Mr. Vogel is working on a book that will explore moments in history when China and Japan were in closest contact.
Nancy Pelosi Made Rare Visit to Tibet, China Says
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, visited Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Meeting With Taiwan Reflects Limits of China’s Checkbook
For the past eight years, the Chinese government has showered its former enemies in Taiwan with economic gifts.
3 Things Taiwan Wants From China
Here are three issues that are likely to be on the top of Ma’s agenda after seven decades without a face-to-face meeting.
Call Me Mister: Taiwan, China Presidents to Hold Historic Meeting
The leaders of Taiwan and China plan to meet in Singapore on Saturday for the first time since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949.
Q. and A.: Chan Koonchung on Imagining a Non-Communist China
We’re in Beijing — no, Beiping — Dec. 10, 1979.
China, Japan and South Korea Relations 'Completely Restored' After Summit
"All sides shared the view that trilateral cooperation has been completely restored in this meeting."
Amartya Sen: Women’s Progress Outdid China’s One-Child Policy
The abandonment of the one-child policy in China is a momentous change.
China to End One-Child Policy, Allowing Families Two Children
China’s Communist Party brought to an end the decades-old “one child” policy.
Two More Japanese Being Held in China, Says Chinese Official
"In addition to the two who were arrested, one is being held and one is being watched at home," the official said.
Yan Lianke: Understand the Enemy
"I think that my fate cannot be separated from literature."
Beijing Says Won't Give up Position that Taiwan's Part of China
Chinese people have a "sacred mission" to ensure Taiwan is always considered part of China.
Ai Weiwei Memoir Coming in Spring 2017
Crown Publishing Group announced that it will publish a memoir by the artist in the spring of 2017.
Ancient Teeth Found in China Challenge Modern Human Migration Theory
Scientists in southern China have discovered human teeth dating back at least 80,000 years.
The Chinese Oscar Winner that Wasn’t
Wolf Totem is a spectacular film, but its soul is missing. That's just how Beijing wants it.
Mao and Other Cultural Inspirations
“An army without culture is a dull-witted army,” Mao Zedong wrote, “and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.”
China Burnishes Xi Jinping’s Legend With TV Drama of His Years in Rural Hamlet
Chinese bloggers label 45-part drama called Liangjiahe as latest homage to omnipotent ‘Big Daddy Xi’.
Lenin’s Chinese Heirs
For Xi, Politics Comes First and Economy Second.
Survivors Tell the Camera the Hidden Tale of China's Great Famine
When Li Yaqin was 16, she ate what her family could scavenge.
Japan May Halt Funds for UNESCO Over Nanjing Row With China
Japan's military aggression before and during World War Two still haunts ties between Asia's two biggest economies.
When Palace Museum Meets Creativity
In the minds of most people, Emperor and his concubines lived their lives solemnly.
China Turns Firepower to Soft Power to Try to Win Tiny Taiwan-held Island
"In Kinmen, we can do what Taiwan can't, what Taiwan doesn't dare do."
A Painting of China’s First Lady, Before a Rise to Stardom
On the exhibition notes, the painting of Peng Liyuan by Jin Shangyi is identified only as “a well-known singer.”
Sinica Podcast
10.05.15
Edmund Backhouse in the Long View of History
from Sinica PodcastEdmund Backhouse, the 20th century Sinologist, long-time Beijing resident, and occasional con-artist, is perhaps best known for his incendiary memoirs, which not only distorted Western understanding of Chinese history for more than 50 years, but...
Culture
10.02.15
In 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...
The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?
In 12 of 16 past cases in which a rising power has confronted a ruling power, the result has been bloodshed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping Will Arrive At The UN Armed With A List Of Things He Wants Changed
Xi Jinping will make his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
How A 10-Gallon Hat Helped Heal Relations Between China And America
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's 1979 tour marked a turning point in Americans' views of Communist China.
Hybrid Warfare With Chinese Characteristics
From Sun Tzu to Xi Jinping: Russia isn’t the only one who knows hybrid warfare.
China Seeks 'New Model' for Relations with U.S.
Despite the enormous range and complexity of the US-China relationship, it is becoming ever harder to manage.
Viewpoint
09.03.15
The U.S. Was the True Mainstay in the Fight Against Japan in World War II
from China Change“When the Chinese people and the Chinese nation were in peril, the United States came to the rescue and asked for nothing in return. The U.S. never occupied a single inch of Chinese territory, never reaped any particular reward.”...
The NYRB China Archive
05.15.15
Mao’s China: The Language Game
from New York Review of BooksIt can be embarrassing for a China scholar like me to read Eileen Chang’s pellucid prose, written more than sixty years ago, on the early years of the People’s Republic of China. How many cudgels to the head did I need before arriving at...
Q. and A.: Francis Fukuyama on China's Political Development
Stanford historian argues an effective political system has to balance state capacity against rule of law and democracy.
Bat-Winged Dinosaur Fossil Discovered in China
The new dinosaur is named Yi qi (pronounced "ee chee") and means "strange wing" in Mandarin.
Culture
04.10.15
A New Opera and Hong Kong’s Utopian Legacy
This year, the 43rd annual Hong Kong Arts Festival commissioned a chamber opera in three acts called Datong: The...
Viewpoint
04.10.15
Bury Zhao Ziyang, and Praise Him
Zhao Ziyang, the premier and general secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1980s, died on January 17, 2005. At a tightly...
Sinica Podcast
04.07.15
Cyber Leninism and the Political Culture of the Chinese Internet
from Sinica PodcastKaiser Kuo and David Moser speak with Rogier Creemers, post-doctoral fellow at Oxford with a focus on Chinese Internet governance and author of the China Copyright and Media...
Xi Jinping Hopes to Count in Chinese Political History With ‘Four Comprehensives’ -
Chinese President Xi Jinping has uncorked his own ordinal political philosophy.
Learn the History of Modern China Through Photobooks
A new book and exhibition reveals the untold history of photobook publishing in China.
Books
02.10.15
Buried Ideas
The discovery of previously unknown philosophical texts from the Axial Age is revolutionizing our understanding of Chinese intellectual history. Buried Ideas presents and discusses four texts found on brush-written slips of bamboo and their seemingly unprecedented political philosophy. Written in the regional script of Chu during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), all of the works discuss Yao’s abdication to Shun and are related to but differ significantly from the core texts of the classical period, such as the Mencius and Zhuangzi.
Culture
02.04.15
‘This is not that China Story’
James Carter spent much of the 1990s researching the modern history of Harbin, China’s northernmost major city, in the region that...
5 Takeaways from China’s GDP
For much of the last two decades, China has been working overtime to drive the growth of the world economy. Now, it’s slowing to suborbital speeds.
In Remote Thai Villages, Legacy of China’s Lost Army Endures
At night, traditional Chinese red lanterns illuminate the hotels, shop fronts and Yunnanese-style restaurants lining the main road in this highland village of just over 1,000 people. On one recent evening, as the mist rose off a nearby reservoir...
Books
12.23.14
Top Five China Books of 2014
As the editor of ChinaFile’s Books section, I have the privilege of meeting and interviewing some amazing writers covering China today—academics, journalists, scholars, activists. Based on...
The NYRB China Archive
12.18.14
China’s Brave Underground Journal—II
from New York Review of BooksIn downtown Beijing, just a little over a mile west of the Forbidden City, is one of China’s most illustrious high schools. Its graduates regularly attend the country’s best universities or go abroad to study, while foreign leaders and CEOs make...