Beijing Subway Bans Halloween Costumes
The Chinese capital banned Halloween costumes from its subway system, warning they could cause “panic” and “stampedes.”
In Hong Kong Photographer, China Sees Image of Spy
Dan Garrett, a gnarled, tattooed former Pentagon intelligence analyst, has attracted more stares than usual lately when he prowls the streets here with a camera fitted with a 300-millimeter lens, snapping images of pro-democracy demonstrations,...
Hong Kong Politician Likens Protesters to African-American Slaves
“American slaves were liberated in 1861, but did not get voting rights until 107 years later,” she was reported as saying by The Standard, an English-language Hong Kong newspaper. “So why can’t Hong Kong wait for a while?”
Nine out of 10 Hong Kong Activists Say Will Fight on for a Year
The most tenacious protests since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 have already persisted beyond most expectations.
China to Ban Extralegal Administration with Power List
The new policy hopes to curb problems in administration and law enforcement such as failure in strictly observing or enforcing the law, putting their power above law, bending law for personal gains and power-for-money trades, Xi Jinping said.
Taking Back Hong Kong’s Future
Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, less than a year after I was born, the people of this city have muddled through with a political system that leaves power in the hands of the wealthy and the well-connected.
Xinhua Insight: China's Legal Renaissance Sounds Death Knell for Guanxi
As the curtain fell on a key meeting on rule of law on Thursday, Israeli Yuval Golan, 29, felt good about his business prospects in what should be a more transparent and predictable China.
The Secret History of Hong Kong’s Stillborn Democracy
By September 29 peaceful protesters had been clogging Hong Kong’s downtown for less than a day, but to the Chinese Communist Party this already smacked of ingratitude.
China Began Push Against Hong Kong Elections in ’50s
Beginning in the 1950s, the colonial governors who ran Hong Kong repeatedly sought to introduce popular elections but abandoned those efforts in the face of pressure by Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
Pro-Democracy Movement’s Vote in Hong Kong Abruptly Called Off
The referendum boiled down to two simple questions: Did voters endorse demanding that the Hong Kong government press Beijing to make democratic concessions on election rules, and did they agree that the changes should apply to city Legislative...
Why China Chose a French-Directed Film as Its Oscar Submission
“It’s a mild, breezy, accessible, feel-good drama which really pictures China as a harmonious, wonderful place where conflicts of various stripes—across age, class or geographical divides—could easily be reconciled,” said Clarence Tsui, a film...
Dispatches From Xinjiang: The Uyghur Blockbuster “Money On The Road”
The comedy Money on the Road (Money Found on the Way in Chinese) features an ensemble of stars, including a cameo by the famous singer...
"Like Running on Mars" - Runners share their Beijing Marathon Stories
To run or not to run? That was the question faced by entrants in Sunday’s Beijing marathon, as they awoke to find hazardous levels of pollution engulfing the city.
Hong Kong’s High Court Orders Protesters Off Roads in Mong Kok and Admiralty
In an interview with The New York Times, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying hinted at possible intervention by the central government if the situation remained unresolved.
Thomas Sauvin’s Beijing Silvermine
Thomas Sauvin estimates that he has sifted through more than half a million images, taken by ordinary citizens, between 1985 and the early aughts, that depict everyday life, leisure, and travel, both in China and abroad.
Hong Kong’s Leader Blames Foreigners for Fanning Protests
“There is obviously participation by people, organizations from outside of Hong Kong,” Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in an interview on Asia Television Ltd.
Why China May Avoid a U.S.-Style Property Crash
“China has clear signs of ‘froth,’ if not a bubble, in housing,” says Goldman Sachs. It looks reminiscent of the bubbles in Japan in the early 1990s and the U.S. from 2006 to 2010, it says—and finds China might turn out differently.
The Hong Kong Protesters Who Won't Negotiate
Pro-democracy protests took a violent turn in Hong Kong, as police officers clashed with demonstrators in the territory's Mong Kok neighborhood.
The U.S. Is No Role Model in Hong Kong’s Democracy Fight
C.Y. Leung explains the protests that continue to paralyze parts of Hong Kong, after thwarting a police crackdown over the weekend: they are being supported by “external forces."
Books
10.15.14
China’s Super Consumers
China has transformed itself from a feudal economy in the 19th century, to Mao and Communism in the 20th century, to the largest consumer market in the world by the early 21st century. China's Super Consumers explores the extraordinary birth of consumerism in China and explains who these super consumers are. China's Super Consumers offers an in-depth explanation of what's inside the minds of Chinese consumers and explores what they buy, where they buy, how they buy, and most importantly why they buy.
Maid in Hong Kong Fights for Justice Against Abuser
Maids from Indonesia and the Philippines are an indispensable part of the Hong Kong’s vibrant economy and society. But incidents of abuse often stay hidden from public view.
When Hong Kong Protests Are Over, Where Will the Art Go?
As Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests wane, what will become of the iconic artwork Umbrella Man, the Lennon Wall of sticky notes and all the banners?
LIVE: Police With Shields and Batons Push Back Protesters On Lung Wo Road
Hundreds of police with power tools tore down protesters’ barricades on Queensway in Admiralty, following a swiftly executed dawn operation to remove a number of blockades in Causeway Bay.
Hong Kong Heats Up Again
Masked men attacked pro-democracy protesters for the second time in as many weeks on the morning of October 13th near Hong Kong’s Admiralty business district.
Sinica Podcast
10.10.14
The Sounds of Old Beijing
from Sinica PodcastThis week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy are joined by Colin Chinnery from the Beijing Sound History Project, a recording project that aims to preserve the distinctive clangs, songs, and shouts of traditional Beijing life. In addition to sampling...
Chinese Communist Party as the Mafia Boss
The next surprise for the protesters came as assaults from members of the mafia, posing as ordinary citizens. We now have enough evidence that the Anti-Occupy Central crowd, emblazoned with blue ribbons, can count on the government’s support, if...
Protests in Hong Kong: Three Things to Know
Former Los Angeles Times Beijing bureau chief Barbara Demick tells us the Hong Kong protests are Not Tiananmen, show Broken Promises and reveal Hong Konger's Basic Complaints.
Hong Kong Protests
"The People's Republic of Amnesia" author Louisa Lim talks with Stephen Colbert about the growing civil unrest in Hong Kong and China's efforts to contain it.
Out of Tiananmen’s Shadow
Similarities to the protest and crackdown at Tiananmen Square have indeed been striking -- and unnerving, given the outcome of that beautiful and terrible spring.
Waldorf Astoria NY hotel sold to China’s Anbang for $1.95bn
The sale allows the companies to “finally maximise the full value of this iconic asset on a full city block in midtown Manhattan,” said Christopher Nassetta, chief executive of Hilton Worldwide.
Hong Kong Protesters Promise to Keep Up Occupation
The student federation said it would not end the protests as no progress had been made on political reform and because the police had yet to address their handling of violent attacks on protesters.
Viewpoint
09.25.14
How Bad Does the Air Pollution Have to Be Before You’d Wear a Face Mask?
“Mommy, why don’t I wear a face mask?” asked my nine-year-old daughter Maggie nearly every day during the first few weeks of school. Two of her expat classmates had been in Beijing less than a year, but it seemed as if they wore theirs all the...
China Eases Credit Rules for Some Property Developers
The biggest of China's some 85,000 property developers are the only ones likely to benefit from this credit loosening. Authorities have been trying to streamline the number of companies as part of economic overhauls.
Books
09.02.14
Cities and Stability
China's management of urbanization is an under-appreciated factor in the regime's longevity. The Chinese Communist Party fears "Latin Americanization"—the emergence of highly unequal megacities with their attendant slums and social unrest. Such cities threaten the survival of nondemocratic regimes.
China Denounces Pet Dogs As Filthy Imports from West
In a recent People's Daily op-ed, pet dogs are referred to as a “crude and ludicrious imitation... of a Western lifestyle” and a blight on “social peace and harmony.”
Environment
08.13.14
Can a Pollution-Tracking App Kickstart Transparency?
from chinadialogueIt seems counter-intuitive that publicly available data needs grassroots activists to make it accessible. Yet, in a sea of regulations and information, official environmental information can be difficult to parse.
The risk of information...
Chinese Dreamers
A dream, in the truest sense, is a solo act. It can’t be created by committee or replicated en masse. Try as you might, you can’t compel your neighbor to conjure up the reverie that you envision. And therein lies the latent,...
China Will Ban All Coal Use In Beijing By 2020
Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website Monday, saying the city would instead prioritize electricity and natural gas for heating.
The End of China’s Hated Hukou System is Less Ground-breaking Than It Seems
The new rules only make it easier for formerly rural hukou holders to move to small, backwater cities, not the vibrant mega-cities along China’s eastern coast where the vast majority of migrants are.
Books
07.31.14
Leftover Women
A century ago, Chinese feminists fighting for the emancipation of women helped spark the Republican Revolution, which overthrew the Qing empire. After China's Communist revolution of 1949, Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky." In the early years of the People's Republic, the Communist Party sought to transform gender relations with expansive initiatives such as assigning urban women jobs in the planned economy. Yet those gains are now being eroded in China's post-socialist era.
China to Help 100 Million Settle in Cities
China State Council said it plans to help about 100 million people without urban ID records to settle in towns and cities by 2020 in a reform of the nation's household registration, or "hukou," system.
China's Rich Look Abroad as Home Prices Fall, Others Stay Put
"Smart money" checking the exit is a bad omen for any market, especially one considered frothy after a five-year record-breaking bull run, but analysts say there is no reason for alarm yet.
China Supplier Sold McDonald's, KFC Expired Meat
McDonald's and KFC in China faced a new food safety scare after a Shanghai television station reported a supplier sold them expired beef and chicken.
All Aboard: China’s Railway Dream
At Asia’s biggest rail cargo base in Chengdu in south-west China, the cranes are hard at work, swinging containers from trucks onto a freight train. The containers are filled with computers, clothes, even cars.
PM2.5 Index Reduced in Beijing
Beijing's average PM2.5 index of 91.6 micrograms per cubic meter in first half of 2014 represents an 11.2 percent year-on-year decrease.
Hundreds of NYC’s Homeless Were Duped by a Chinese Millionaire Today
A Chinese millionaire treated 250 homeless New Yorkers to a feast and karaoke rendition of “We Are the World” in Central Park today, but pretty much everyone left the event totally totally disappointed.
China is Building Phoenix Towers, the World’s Tallest Twin Skyscrapers
Chinese builders have ambitious designs on erecting the world’s tallest skyscraper, soaring more than more 3,000 feet into the heavens.
Young Men Who Are Anything Short Of Wealthy In Urban China Face Brutal Girlfriend Reality
China has at least more than 30 million more men than women. As a result, finding a girlfriend there is extremely difficult.
A Man Takes His Cabbage for a Walk
The Chinese performance artist Han Bing recently dragged a cabbage through city centers as a social commentary on people’s relationships with objects in their lives.
Caixin Media
06.18.14
China’s Retiring Migrant Workers Have No Place to Call Home
A generation of Chinese people from rural areas who moved to the big cities to find work is reaching retirement age, but many are finding they have been left outside the country's urban pension system despite extensive reforms in recent years....
China’s Answer To Its Poverty Of Space: Moving Mountains
Chongqing, Shiyan, Yichang, Lanzhou and Yan’an. All belong to the “Yellow” China, a parched region tormented by a complicated geography that severely limits almost all human activities, such as farming, communications, construction or industry....
Capital Mobilizes Anti-Terrorism Volunteer Force
Beijing has deployed an anti-terrorism force of about 850,000 urban volunteers to patrol its streets following recent terrorist attacks across the country.
Elaborate Lattice Work in Confucius Lane
In my few years of photographing old houses around Shanghai, I have never been this buoyant over lattice woodwork in its original setting.
Deadly McDonald’s Attack Highlights Fears About Cults in China
The perpetrators were six members of a religious cult, including a middle-age man, his two grown daughters and his 12-year-old son, who became angry when refused a phone number.
China Admits to Failures Over Air Quality
Only three cities, or 4.1%, of the 74 major Chinese cities subject to air quality standards met the national standard for good air quality in 2013.
Why Scrapping 6 Million Cars is Not Going to End China’s Pollution Problem
While studies have shown some success from these measures, the fact that this bigger ban is being proposed is perhaps a sign it wasn't enough.
Books
05.22.14
Age of Ambition
From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy—or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don’t see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes.
Infographics
05.15.14
China’s Fake Urbanization
from Sohu
This infographic explains why it is so hard for rural migrants to settle permanently in cities. For starters, city dwellers were the first to get rich after Reform and Opening Up, which created a large income disparity between them and people living...