Tapping into Crowd Power with Website Finance
Investing like an angel now costs no more than an average duck dinner in Beijing.
The force driving China’s growing ranks of small-scale angel investors are crowdfunding websites, which offer individuals access to business financing pools...
Li Lei and Han Meimei, The love affair of a whole generation
Two characters in China’s English textbook used 20 years ago are back, sparking a wave of nostalgia.
Radio: Shanghai Residents Discuss U.S. Presidential Debate
Eight Chinese watched and discussed Tuesday's U.S. presidential debate at the NPR Shanghai bureau.
Chinese elite politics: It's still a man's world
It's easier for a Chinese woman to orbit Earth than land a spot atop Chinese politics.
Chinese Boycott Airline China Southern After Mysterious Death of Dog
from chinadialogueOn the morning of October 10, a high-profile lawsuit against China Southern, one of China’s “big three” airlines, opened at Chaoyang People’s Court in Beijing. The plaintiffs? Zhao Nan and Chen Lei, a couple from Tianjin, north China, who blame...
Bo Xilai as a Catalyst for Political Reform
No matter how you look at it, the disciplinary process surrounding the case of Bo Xilai will have historic implications.
Details of the crimes committed by Bo, his wife, Bogu Kailai, and his former right-hand man, Wang Lijun, reflect a...
Forbes China 100 Richest List
Forty-five of China’s 100 biggest fortunes slipped from last year’s FORBES ASIA Richest List.
No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers
from Sinica PodcastAs China continues to subsidize inefficient state enterprises on a massive scale, an increasing number of critics—domestic and foreign—are questioning whether current policies mark a rejection or corruption of the vision championed by reformers...
Mo Yan Mines a Deep Well
Mo Yan's work recalls a Soviet dissident's quip that in his country “reality and satire are the same.”
Netizens React to Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize
Upon hearing the news that novelist Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, a flurry of messages about the fifty-seven-year-old Shandong native circulated on weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, expressing decidedly mixed opinions...
Will Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize Finally Mean Better Book Sales Abroad?
Literature in translation in the United States has wide but shallow roots, making English language stars out of the likes of Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Haruki Murakami, but leaving most of China’s writers struggling to take hold. Now, veteran...
China's 'Leftover' Women
In 2007, the Women’s Federation defined “leftover” women (sheng nu) as unmarried women over the age of 27 and China’s Ministry of Education added the...
Standing Their Ground
The forced eviction of people from their homes and farmland has become a routine occurrence in China and represents a gross violation of China’s international human rights obligations on an enormous scale. Despite international scrutiny and...
An Honest Writer Survives in China
from New York Review of BooksA little over a year ago, I went with the Chinese writer Yu Hua to his hometown of Hangzhou, some one hundred miles southwest of Shanghai, and realized that his bawdy books might not be purely fictional; their characters and situations seemed to...
China Gets Back to Work
After China's Golden Week holiday, a round-up of important recent stories on economy and politics.
Developmental Fairy Tales
In 1992 Deng Xiaoping famously declared, “Development is the only hard imperative.” What ensued was the transformation of China from a socialist state to a capitalist market economy. The spirit of development has since become the prevailing creed of the People’s Republic, helping to bring about unprecedented modern prosperity, but also creating new forms of poverty, staggering social upheaval, physical dislocation, and environmental destruction.
Top Clothing Brands Linked to Water Pollution Scandal in China
from chinadialogueChina is the major hub of the international textile industry, exporting US$200 billion worth of textile and apparel products in 2010—accounting for 34 percent of global exports.
It’s provided cheap T-shirts and other clothes to people...
The Mixed Bag of Socialism
Ahead of the 18th National Congress, the phrase “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is as strong as ever.
Why China Lacks Gangnam Style
In China, the Gangnam phenomenon carries a special pique. It has left people asking, Why couldn’t we come up with that? China, after all, dwarfs Korea in political clout, money, and market power, and it cranks out more singers and dancers in a...
Chinese Characters
Though China is currently in the global spotlight, few outside its borders have a feel for the tremendous diversity of the lives being led inside the country. This collection of compelling stories challenges oversimplified views of China by shifting the focus away from the question of China’s place in the global order and zeroing in on what is happening on the ground. Some of the most talented and respected journalists and scholars writing about China today profile people who defy the stereotypes that are broadcast in print, over the airwaves, and online.
Mistresses and Corruption
Which came first? The corruption or the mistresses? In China, they most often go together. The stories abound: from the corrupt official in Fujian who, in 2002, held the first (and only) annual ...
The End of the Great Migration
China’s great migration started with farmers boarding crowded trains in Sichuan, Henan, and Hubei - poor provinces in China’s interior. A day or two later, they arrived here, along the Pearl River Delta, just north of Hong Kong, and became...
China’s Low Glass Ceiling Threatens Growth
A sea change is rippling through many Chinese factories. A workforce once dominated by women is now increasingly male. China’s ...
Han Han: ‘Why Aren’t You Grateful?’
from New York Review of BooksWhen looking for Chinese reactions to the anti-Japanese riots that took place in late September, it was probably not much of a surprise that the Western press turned to Han Han, the widely read Shanghai-based blogger. In characteristic form, Han...
Ousted From Party in China, Bo Xilai Faces Prosecution
Chinese leaders announced on Friday that Bo Xilai, a disgraced Communist Party aristocrat, had been expelled from the...
An Evening at the Beijing Bookworm
from Sinica PodcastAi Weiwei: I Won’t Pay
Artist Ai Weiwei said he would refuse to pay the remainder of a $2.4 million fine for tax evasion after a Beijing court rejected his appeal on Thursday, setting the stage for another possible showdown between the media-savvy dissident and Chinese...
Chinese Female Official Aspires to Top Role
Most of the 25 members of China’s Politburo are uncannily similar, with their black-dyed hair, dark suits and science degrees, but one stands out.
With her trademark blue skirt-suit and pearls, Liu Yandong, 66, the top official in charge...
China’s Wealthiest: When Getting Rich Is Not Glorious
Each year around this time, the Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based luxury publishing and events group, releases its compiled list of China’s wealthiest people. The report not only satisfies the prurient...
“Digital Disaster” Frustrates Would-Be Train Ticket Buyers
It’s a digital disaster. With a Chinese travel crunch looming, China’s online ticketing system is quickly turning into a boondoggle of historic proportions.
China’s Lost Decade
from New York Review of BooksIt’s hard to believe, but just twenty years ago China was on the verge of abandoning the market reforms that have since propelled it to its current position as a world power. Conservatives had used the 1989 Tiananmen massacre to reverse the...
After Panjin Killing, Public Deserves to Know
There is growing public skepticism about the veracity of a government report detailing a demolition-related incident in Panjin, Liaoning province, during which a police officer killed a villager for allegedly threatening his life.
...
What the Foxconn Riot Says About China
Day by day, Chinese workers expect better conditions and greater guarantees that when companies go bust, the employees will not. And, yet, China permits no independent trade unions or free collective bargaining. Complaint and mediation procedures...
Still a Model? Revisiting the Rebel Village of Wukan
A little over a year ago, residents of the small southern Chinese fishing village of Wukan ransacked the offices of the local government in protest over a land grab by local officials. The death in police custody of one of the protest leaders a...
The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories
A riot involving 2,000 workers at a factory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan on Sunday night once has once again shined a light on conditions at factories owned by Apple Inc. supplier Foxconn. The cause of the riot appears to have been a...
Law Professor He Weifang on Why Wang Lijun’s Trial Scared Him
Today, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua announced that Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief, has been found guilty by a court in Chengdu of four criminal charges, including defection, abuse of power, taking bribes, and bending...
Lunch with the FT: Chen Guangcheng
As we start our meal, I ask Chen how he likes the food in New York. His wife gives him a piece of pizza, telling him what it is and that he can use his hands to eat it. He smiles and says he likes all kinds of cuisine, especially Japanese and...
State to Tighten Oversight of International NGOs
By amending existing law, China will set clear rules for international NGOs to register on the mainland and will strengthen supervision of their activities. Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs, made the announcement at a news conference inBeijing...
Hit TV Show Sings Song of Media Model Success
A reality-talent TV songfest popular in more than forty countries around the world has become an instant hit in China, underpinning enthusiasm for an experimental business model linked to media sector reform.
The Voice of China’s...
Beijing both Encourages and Reins in Anti-Japanese Protests, Analysts Say
As anger increases over a territorial dispute...
China Warns of ‘Further Actions’ as Anti-Japan Protests Resume
China drove home its opposition to Japanese control of a...
Seriously Hooked on Nationalism
This is the worst kind of dispute because everybody’s right and nobody’s right. Japan and China have more than their share of nationalist nitwits, but nobody actually lives on these rocks and it’s not like you can go and ask the goats what they’...
China’s Anti-Japan Riots Are State-Sponsored. Period.
But anyone who has followed domestic protests in China for even a short period of time should be clear on the fact that if it wants to, the government has the means to totally shut these protests down. They may have sent in the...
The Anti-Japanese Eruptions in China
Six years ago, in the first article I filed after moving to Shanghai, I listed the things that struck me as different,...
Envy and Spectacle: America’s Presidential Race Finds an Adoring Audience in China
After the Democratic and Republican National Conventions closed, as candidates charged back to the campaign trail and as the American media moved on, the campaign speeches made their way across the Pacific Ocean to China, where they are still...
How a Protest in Beijing Stuck to the Script
On the afternoon of September 16, rows of policemen and security personnel in black T-shirts lined Beijing’s Liangmaqiao Road near the Japanese embassy during protests over the Diaoyu Islands controversy. Security guards were visible everywhere,...
No Excuse for the Excuses Officials Hand Us
Putting the right spin on one’s words is a science, and civil servants with fiduciary responsibility have to master this subject. It helps to shift blame to someone else; a child, a spouse, or a convenient foreigner will do.
Several weeks...
What Microblogs Aren’t Telling You About China
In China, where notions of freedom of speech and freedom of expression are seen by the government as secondary to the all-important ideal of social stability, there is little space, if any, for truly open and unmediated public conversation....
TED Talk: The Voices of Chinese Workers
n the ongoing debate about globalization, what's been missing is the voices of workers -- the millions of people who migrate to factories in China and other emerging countries to make goods sold all over the world....
Moneyless Pensions Yield No Gold for the Old
SHENYANG—Morning breezes turn chilly in late August, signaling fall’s approach in the Tiexi factory district.
For the unemployed men and women standing on sidewalks between a labor bureau office and a park every day at 6 a.m., the change...
The Ten Grave Problems Facing China
‘The Ten Grave Problems’ 十大文问题 forms the second section of a three-part feuilleton or ‘pamphlet’ (in its earlier rabble-rousing sense) by Deng Yuwen 邓聿文 titled ‘The Political Legacy of Hu-Wen’ 胡温的政治遗产. It...
Despite Regulations, Bus Travel Still Risky
Thirty-six people died recently on a Shaanxi province highway when a double-decker bus slammed into a fuel tanker.
The crash underscored ongoing demands for beefing up traffic law enforcement and improving the design of these often-crowded...
Chinese Netizens Find Michelle Obama’s Speech “Amazing”
First Lady Michelle Obama knew she was speaking to the American electorate when she took the stage yesterday at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. But she may not have known the size–or, it turns out, the...
Chinese Writer on Honest, Generous, “Foolish” Americans
I’ve already been in the U.S. for a long time. I regret that choice. We’ve been [fooled] by Western media the whole time, making us think that the U.S. is a modernized country. Harboring hopes of studying American modern science in order to serve...