Inside China’s Hoop Dreams
When it comes to cracking the Chinese market, Hollywood could take a page out of the NBA’s playbook. “The love for basketball here is just incredible,” says Kobe Bryant.
Liu Xiaobo’s Brother-in-Law Liu Hui to Serve 11 Years After Losing Appeal
Amid Tribute to King of Pop, an Echo of Tiananmen Square
The famous and politcally sensitive “Tank Man” photograph of June 1989 appears during a Michael Jackson tribute...
Xi Jinping’s Overlooked Revelation on China’s Maritime Disputes
Although unnoticed by foreign analysts, Xi Jinping recently signaled a desire to dial back tensions in the South and East China Seas.
China Vanke Chairman Wang Shi Defends Right to Speak out on Politics
Property tycoon Wang Shi has defended the rights of businessmen like himself to speak up on political issues, citing disgraced Politburo member Bo Xilai’s efforts to enlist his support for his controversial campaigns.
Why Aren’t Chinese People Reading Books Anymore?
China’s once-robust trade in serious literature has withered under an increasingly materialistic, results-oriented society.
Japanese visits to shrine on war anniversary anger China
Japan's prime minister sent an offering to a shrine for war dead on the anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat, drawing harsh complaints from...
About That Tiananmen Tank Man Image In Cirque du Soleil’s Beijing Show
On opening night of Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour in Beijing, the highly sensitive the Tiananmen Tank Man image was displayed on the giant big-screens above the stage in Wukesong MasterCard Arena....
David Moser Interviews Mark Rowswell
from Sinica PodcastIf you are a long-timer in China, this is a show that needs no introduction. One of the most famous foreigners in China, Mark Rowswell (a.k.a. Dashan), shot to fame in the early 1990s after a fortuitous break on Chinese television. In this live...
Don’t Dream Big—Four Vignettes on Social Mobility in Modern China
The New York Times recently ran an article that detailed the...
Dalai Lama’s Chinese Website Infecting Visitors, Expert Warns
A prominent computer security firm has warned that the Dalai Lama’s Chinese-language website has been compromised with malicious software that is infecting computers of visitors with software that could be used for spying.
China’s Overdue Payments to Hollywood Could Happen This Week
Hollywood studios expect to be paid every penny of revenue that has bee earned in China, which is currently held up by a payment dispute. Studio sources suggest that an announcement will be made within a week.
The Olympics’ Leadership Mess
Members of the I.O.C. will vote for a new president for the first time in 12 years. This may be the last chance for many years to reform the committee’s approach to repressive governments that seek to host the games.
Monster Zombie Spider to Crush Super Mario’s China Dreams
Can Nintendo’s Super Mario take on Tencent Holding’s giant, undead Spider? As the country ends a 13-year ban on consoles, a generation of gamers have grown used to a free online model and increasingly migrating to mobile devices.
China Box-Office Standoff: Hollywood Could Receive Back Payments Soon
A solution in a tax dispute that has resulted in delays in box-office payments to Hollywood studios could be coming soon as China Film Group explores interim solutions ahead of a more permanent resolution in coming weeks.
Psst, Chinese State Media: It's Satire
This week, Xinhua, China’s state-run newswire, picked up and translated a satirical blog post from the New Yorker’s Borowitz Report as though it were straight news reporting.
Five Years On
On August 8, 2008, I was in Beijing reporting on the media aspects of China’s first Olympic Games, and I am still amazed that the four-hour...
Is This Lazy Panda China’s Zuckerberg?
State-owned China Network Television has installed more than 30 cameras at a panda reserve in Western China, designed a fancy website providing access to the cameras, launched a mobile app so the pandas can be watched on-the-go, and then...
China Detains Prominent Bo Xilai Supporter Ahead of Trial
Song Yangbiao, a reporter for the magazine the Time Weekly, was detained on Sunday according to friends and supporters, apparently after using his Sina Weibo microblog to denounce the trial and call for an uprising to oppose it....
Chinese Judges Disciplined for Cavorting With Prostitutes
Two judges and an official of the Shanghai high court have been expelled from the Communist Party and dismissed from their jobs after being seen on video apparently consorting with prostitutes in glitzy nightclubs.
China Warns Against Rush to Set Code of Conduct in South China Sea
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday in Hanoi that the envisaged Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) cannot be set in a rush as it concerns the interests...
The Chinese Communist Party Has Embraced the Internet—For Public Polling
Beijing has started to glean political intelligence from the same systems they restrict access to.
Life in a Toxic Country
Before this assignment, I reported from Iraq, where foreign correspondents talked endlessly of the variety of ways in which one could die. I survived those threats, only now to find myself wondering: Is China doing irreparable harm to me and my...
China Media on the Snowden Saga
Media in China see further embarrassment for the United States after whistleblower Edward Snowden gets temporary asylum in Russia.
Now Playing: China’s Booming Movie Market
In China, where pirated movies can be bought for less than $1, people are flocking to theaters, a sign of how Chinese consumers are willing to spend more on entertainment.
Books of the Times—“Five Star Billionaire”
Shanghai For Strivers: Tash Aw’s new novel captures China’s changes.
Hollywood Studios Denied Payments from China
Sony is up against an issue that has plagued the studios since at least January: The Chinese government wants to impose a value-added tax that cuts into what the studios expected to be their 25% revenue share of the Chinese box office.
Why a Reporter Feels Sympathy for an Airport Bomber
These past few years as a reporter, I have met some people with nothing left to live for and now another person can be added to the list. Ji Zhongxing, the disabled man who set off a bomb in a Beijing airport on July 20, is that person.
Ji...
Hollywood's Trouble With China? It Has All the Leverage
New data from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television indicates that for the first time in recent history, Hollywood could experience negative growth in China. "The leverage is always on China's side," noted one financier. "In...
Throttling Dissent: China’s New Leaders Refine Internet Control
This special report is based on the 2013 China chapter of Freedom House’s annual Freedom on the Net survey. As the home of one of the most systematically controlled and monitored online environments in the world, China will no doubt...
Bruno Wu, Former Bertelsmann CEO Form China Media Venture
Reporter Who Interviewed Jack Ma Resigns
Liu Yi, the reporter who interviewed Mr. Ma, resigned on July 19, according to a statement on the SCMP’s site. The interview generated controversy online as Mr. Ma was quoted as saying the 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square was “the...
Billionaire Jack Ma Makes About-Face, Praises Chinese Government
Prominent Chinese Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma has in the eyes of some shattered his independent image during a recent newspaper interview in which he applauded China for its online censorship and brutal, strong-arm tactics....
Xu Zhiyong Arrested: How Serious Can Beijing Be About Political Reform?
Donald Clarke:
When I heard that Xu Zhiyong had just been detained, my first thought was, “Again?” This seems to be something the authorities do every time they get nervous, a kind of political Alka Seltzer to settle an upset...
As Red Cross Probe Stumbles, Critics See Red
Two box lunches—and nothing more. Yuan Yue says that’s what the Red Cross Society of China has frugally handed out so far to each member of a special committee assigned to investigate the charity group’s finances.
But critics of the special...
Ripples from the Egyptian Revolution
from Sinica PodcastIn Egypt in 2011, what was by all accounts a free and fair democratic election resulted in the victory of Mohammed Morsi, a controversial figure whose brief rule ended last week after being overthrown by the Egyptian military. With Western media...
China’s Blackout of U.S. Media Can No Longer Be Ignored
Web censorship is not just an inconvenience but also a reminder that many leading U.S. media and technology companies are excluded, or largely excluded, from one of the world’s largest markets and this country’s largest trading partner....
Censoring the News Before It Happens
Chinese censors number in the hundreds-of-thousands. Their duties are to not only block stories they disapprove of, but to alter and obscure details in published stories, and promote stories that cast the Party in a good light.
China Likely to Lift Foreign Game Console Ban
China is expected to soon end a 13-year ban on the sale of gaming consoles with only one key condition: foreign firms like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft must make their products in Shanghai’s new free trade zone.
China Box Office Up 36% to $1.79 Billion in First Half of 2013
Buoyed by a surge in ticket sales for homegrown domestic films, China’s box office continued its rapid expansion in the first half of 2013, according to figures released by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and...
Old Photo of Tiananmen Square Has Netizens Asking “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”
A rare old color photo of Tiananmen Square was posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter, and it was commented on hundreds of times as Internet users mused about the past and present of China’s most recognizable landmark.
Here are the three things...
Australian PM’s Online Musings Have Chinese Wondering: Where Is Xi’s Microblog Account?
On July 9, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd posted on a social media site about a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The twist? The message was written in Chinese on the immensely popular Chinese microblogging platform Sina...
Censoring the News Before It Happens
from New York Review of BooksEvery day in China, hundreds of messages are sent from government offices to website editors around the country that say things like, “Report on the new provincial budget tomorrow, but do not feature it on the front page, make no comparisons to...
For Chinese Families, a Journey Cut Short, and With It Their Dreams
On their way to Bible camp in America, two Chinese teenagers from Zhejiang Province flew through South Korea and into San Francisco International Airport, where their plane skidded and burst into flames. Both died, the only fatalities in the...
Ex-Rail Minister in China Gets a Suspended Death Sentence
A Beijing Beijing sentenced former Chinese minister of railways Li Zhijun to a suspended death sentence after finding him guilty of taking bribes and abusing his powers, state-run media reported.
Mixed Signals On China’s Policies in Tibet
Worshipping the Dalai Lama remains illegal in Tibetan areas of China, despite earlier reports of changes in China's policies in Lhasa and in some parts of neighboring Qinghai province.
China Sex Film Mistakenly Shown on Big Screen in Jilin
A film banned as pornography in China was accidentally shown on a large LED screen in a public square in Jilin province, Chinese media report. A technician had been watching the film on his computer without realising it was connected to the...
China Online Petition Website Crashes on First Day
For centuries, China has offered its people a chance to come to Beijing to petition the emperor directly to address grievances. But starting Monday, Chinese officials offered a new way for those not inclined to make the trip: petition online. As...
A Character Battle Between China’s Government and its Internet Users
The horse is out of the barn. Now that China’s social Web has given every citizen the ability to publish for a wide audience—a privilege once reserved for the government—state publications and Web users there continue to wrangle over who best...
China Hopes to Score a Slam Dunk With 3-D NBA Film 'Amazing'
The $10-million film, "Amazing," features New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, Lakers center Dwight Howard and former Chicago Bulls forward Scottie Pippen in supporting roles and had its world premiere at the Shanghai International Film...
China Must End Silence on Injustice, Warns Film Director Jia Zhangke
A leading Chinese director has warned the country faces a rising tide of violence unless it tackles its social problems, as he discussed his graphic new film. Jia Zhangke's film, A Touch of Sin has been described as 'ultra violent', but the...
China’s “Urban Enforcers” Caught in a Vicious Cycle
Last week, another anecdote about chengguan— China’s urban enforcers whose main tasks include enforcing urban beautification ordinances and cracking down on unlicensed street vendors— caught the public’s attention. On June 15, a web user...
How Badly Have Snowden’s Leaks Hurt U.S.-China Relations?
Matt Schiavenza:
In the understatement of the day, the United States is unhappy with the recent developments of the Edward Snowden situation. Just three days ago, Washington was in negotiations with Hong Kong to file a warrant for...
The 'Long March' to Tinseltown
After working with Hollywood companies at a basic level for many years, it is only a matter of time before Chinese capital takes a share in the major six Hollywood studios. The next Kung Fu Panda will be the brainchild of both american and...
What’s Right or Wrong with This Chinese Stance on Edward Snowden?
For today’s ChinaFile Conversation we asked contributors to react to the following excerpt from an op-ed published on Monday June 17 in the...
Chinese State Media Warns Against Extradition of Edward Snowden
Chinese newspaper, The Global Times published an article calling for China to “safeguard its interests”, describing extraditing Snowden back to the US as a “betrayal of Snowden’s trust.” The editorial published on Monday argued Mr...