Study Asks if Tainted Chinese Herbs Are Harming, Not Healing

Chinese herbal medicine, an ancient tradition that is supposed to heal, may be doing the opposite: is it also harming people’s health and polluting the environment with pesticides, as a Greenpeace study released Monday suggests. The study tested...

Media
06.25.13

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...

Books
06.25.13

Civil Society in China

This is the definitive book on the legal and fiscal framework for civil society organizations (CSOs) in China from earliest times to the present day. Civil Society in China traces the ways in which laws and regulations have shaped civil society over the 5,000 years of China’s history and looks at ways in which social and economic history have affected the legal changes that have occurred over the millennia.

Prison of the Mind

Observing the Chinese prison system from the inside, as a “counterrevolutionary” inmate, Liao Yiwu tells us a great deal about Chinese society, both traditional and Communist. He ends his account by saying that “China remains a prison of the mind...

Sinica Podcast
06.22.13

The Evan Osnos Exit Interview

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more
from Sinica Podcast

In a summer when many reporters and their families are departing Beijing (including many people who have appeared on this podcast), perhaps the biggest loss to the foreign correspondents’ pool in the Chinese capital is the departure of Evan Osnos...

Books
06.21.13

Why Has China Grown So Fast For So Long?

For analysts China presents a conundrum. It is clear that China has made rapid progress, and the landscape of the world is changing due to China’s unique position. Yet for decades, many have questioned this phenomenon, showing concern about cooked data, asset bubbles about to burst, and so on. Yet the Chinese economy has kept growing at a blistering pace, 9-10 per cent annually, and more at times, over a span of almost three decades.

Why India Trails China

India’s underperformance can be traced to a failure to learn from the examples of so-called Asian economic development, in which rapid expansion of human capability is both a goal in itself and an integral element in achieving rapid growth.

The Chimerica Dream

Whatever the confusions and difficulties the Chinese leadership faces, Beijing seems to understand the realities behind Washington’s strategic intentions. One wonders whether the reverse applies.

On Saving China's Dying Languages

For a country so thoroughly associated with its national language, referred to in the West as Mandarin, China is remarkably rich in linguistic diversity. Unfortunately, the country's rapid development - and government mandates to use Mandarin in...

Culture
06.18.13

The Local Folk

Sun Yunfan

In the liner notes of their 2009 début album, A Tale of Haifeng, Guangzhou-based indie folk band Wu Tiao Ren tinkered with the Communist party slogan “Lizu xiancheng, fangyan quanqiu,” which translates roughly: “See the world...

China’s Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million Into Cities

The ultimate goal of the government’s modernization plan is to fully integrate 70 percent of the country’s population, or roughly 900 million people, into city living by 2025. Currently, only half that number are.

 

 ...

Calls Grow in China to Press Claim for Okinawa

The Chinese government has not asserted a claim to Okinawa. But the seminar last month, which included state researchers and retired officers from the senior ranks of the People’s Liberation Army, was the latest act in what seems to be a...

Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ Takes Off in China

 “Finnegans Wake” in Chinese may strain the imagination of many, given the almost unsolvable challenges of the original English, but Ms. Dai Congrong, an associate professor of Comparative Literature at Fudan University, said that Chinese readers...

Conversation
06.13.13

Who’d You Rather Be Watched By: China or the U.S.?

Tai Ming Cheung, Andrew J. Nathan & more

Reports of U.S. gathering data on emails and phone calls have stoked fears of an over-reaching government spying on its citizens. Chinese artist...

Few Chinese Follow NSA Revelations but Embrace Leaker

Although Snowden is believed to be holed up in Hong Kong, the southern city that since 1997 forms part of the People's Republic but retains some autonomy, China's state-run media has offered little coverage to date, and it's also not trending on...

A Hero’s Welcome for Snowden on Chinese Internet

Chinese Internet users – who for years have lived with well-founded paranoia over the possibility that someone the government could be monitoring their activities online — lauded the self-described whistleblower for the risks he has taken in...

Soul-Searching Former Red Guard Won Praises on Weibo

Liu Boqin’s public apology for his acts during the Cultural Revolution received widespread accolates from Chinese netizens. On Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, an overwhelming majority of commentors applauded him while saying, other Red Guards...

China’s Venetian Quandary: Chinese Artists

The Chinese exhibition at the 55th Venice Biennale, which opened June 1 and runs through Nov. 24, has been organized by Wang Chunchen, head of curatorial research at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Beijing. Its theme...

Media
06.12.13

In Box Office Hit, American Dream Is Still Alive—In a Maturing China

Over the last two weeks, the movie American Dreams in China (中国合伙人) has been the number one box office hit in China, selling over 400 million tickets to date. The movie is a gritty and at times tongue-in-cheek comedy that tells the true...

Most View China as a Friend

According to a Gallup poll on Thursday, 55 percent of respondents thought China was either an ally or friendly nation. A total of 40 percent viewed China unfavorably.

‘Escape From North Korea’ (Video)

In this Op-Doc video, Ann Shin profiles a smuggler named Dragon, who charges North Korean defectors for guiding them through China and Southeast Asia into eventual asylum and safety in South Korea.

 

Books
06.08.13

China: Portrait of a People

From the subtropical jungles of Yunnan to the frozen wastes of Heilongjiang; across the scalding deserts of Xinjiang and beneath Hong Kong’s neon blur.  Tramping through China by train, bus, boat, motorcycle, mule or hitching on the back of anything that moved.  On a budget so scant that he drew sympathetic stares from peasants. Backpacking photographer Tom Carter somehow succeeded in circumnavigating over 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) across all 33 provinces in China during a 2-year period, the first foreigner on record ever to do so.

Media
06.07.13

Can Animation Cure What Ails the Chinese Movie Industry?

“Gold rush.” “1920s Hollywood.” “Faster than a speeding bullet.” These are a few ways that film professionals have described China’s booming movie industry. China’s film market, the second-largest in the world,...

Sinica Podcast
06.07.13

What China is Getting Right

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more
from Sinica Podcast

Complain as we might about life in China, the last thirty-four years or so haven’t been all bad: we have seen three decades of roughly ten percent GDP growth, a whole lot of people eating a whole lot better than they did, and impressive progress...

A Factory Burns in China

That a four-year-old factory in a fast-growing economy could be run in such a dangerous fashion is a story not of poverty but of legal disarray. Early on, Chinese were openly discussing corruption, safety standards, and the government’s...

Phonemica: A Quest to Save China’s Languages

Phonemica, or xiangyinyuan, is an innovative project that documents China’s myriad dialects and languages, many of which are slowly disappearing due to state-sponsorship of Mandarin as the national language. ...

Urbanisation: Some Are More Equal Than Others

Rural migrants living in the handshake buildings are still second-class citizens, most of whom have no access to urban health care or to the city’s high schools. Their homes could be demolished at any time.

 

The NYRB China Archive
06.06.13

Faking It in China

Ian Johnson
from New York Review of Books

One of the most striking features about daily life in China is how much of what one encounters has been appropriated from elsewhere. It’s not just the fake iPhones or luxury watches—pirated consumer goods are common in many developing countries....

Chinese Poultry Plant Fire Kills More Than 100

Chinese news reports said many of the workers who had died had been hindered from leaving the factory, the Baoyuanfeng Poultry Plant, because the exits had been blocked or inadequate.

 

 

Books
06.04.13

Strange Stones

Peter Hessler

During the past decade, Peter Hessler has persistently illuminated worlds both foreign and familiar—ranging from China, where he served as The New Yorker’s correspondent from 2000 to 2007, to southwestern Colorado, where he lived for four years. Strange Stones is an engaging, thought-provoking collection of Hessler’s best pieces, showcasing his range as a storyteller and his gift for writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider.

Media
06.03.13

Online Outrage After Chinese City Proposes Fine on Single Mothers

Women giving birth out of wedlock in China have to contend with family pressure, social stigma, and financial hardship. Now, some of them may have to pay a hefty fine as well.

Wuhan, a city of more than 10 million people in Central China,...

Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet

Council on Foreign Relations

The Task Force recognizes that there are both considerable opportunities and perilous challenges in cyberspace. This report identifies guiding principles and makes policy recommendations to mobilize a coalition of old friends and rising cyber...

Expanding Social Insurance Coverage in Urban China

World Bank
This paper first reviews the history of social insurance policy and coverage in urban China, documenting the evolution in the coverage of pensions and medical and unemployment insurance for both local residents and migrants, and highlighting...
Sinica Podcast
05.31.13

The Abuse of Children

Jeremy Goldkorn, Leta Hong Fincher & more
from Sinica Podcast

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After a few weeks grousing about the state of Chinese humor, sex, and Bill Bishop, we turn our gaze to the plight of the nation’s children, and the stories of child abuse and maltreatment which have filled the...

Ideological Debate: Drawing the Battle Lines

Xi Jinping’s lip service to liberalization and constitutionalism has emboldened advocates of political reform. Party officials have responded by rallying against constitutionalism and warning activists to not adopt Western ideals....

Environment
05.30.13

China’s “NIMBY” Protests: Sign of Unequal Society

from chinadialogue

NIMBY—or “not in my backyard”—protests happen when residents attempt to protect their neighborhoods from the negative impacts of public or industrial facilities. Since the 2007 “walking protests” against a...

Can Rich Chinese Beach Bums Save Club Med?

To offset the fall in European spending, Club Med has been courting upscale Chinese tourists.Besides marking the rise of the Chinese tourist, the bid also signals the gathering momentum of Chinese private equity overseas.

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Think Tank Urged to Research ‘China Dream’

With this reference to a great renewal of the CHinese nation dominating the zeitgeist the Chinese Academy of Social Science was urged to conduct research to provide academic support for self-confidence in the Chines path, theories and...

China’s Brutal One-Child Policy

In the countryside, where the need for extra hands to help in the fields and the deeply entrenched patriarchal desire for a male heir have created strong resistance to population control measures, officials has been merciless....

Chen Guangcheng Issues Plea For Relatives In China

“I think the U.S. government should publicly and officially ask the Chinese government to fulfill their commitments. It’s been a year now and neither side is living up to their promises following the negotiations last year.”...

China’s Entrenched Gender Gap

China’s figures for working women is high because it includes women working in the countryside, and unlike developed countries, nearly half of China’s population is still rural. The picture for urban women is very...

Why China’s Riches Won’t Bring It Freedom

China poses a challenge to the Anglo-American faith in the global march of liberalism and democracy. It has achieved spectacular growth without embracing electoral democracy. 

 

China Tries to Improve Image in a Changing Myanmar

With its petrol projects challenged more than ever by activists energized by Myanmar’s democratic opening, China has been trying to repair its tarnished reputation among residents here, and in the country at large.

 

Instant City

In the district of Bao’an in Shenzhen, thousands of laborers live in a makeshift city of prefabricated dormitories beside the hulking, mile-long steel shell of what will soon be the city’s newest airline terminal. 

 

Media
05.22.13

On “Strange Stones,” a Discussion with Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler, Michael Meyer & more

On May 21st at the Asia Society in New York City, Peter Hessler, author of the recently published Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and...

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