ChinaFile is an online magazine published by the Asia Society, dedicated to promoting an informed, nuanced, and vibrant public conversation about China, in the U.S. and around the world.

ChinaFile publishes original reporting and analysis across a wide spectrum of topics in writing, photography, and video. We devote our energy to underreported subjects, innovative and elegant storytelling, experts interested in engaging non-experts, Chinese analysts who want to write for international audiences, and questions we feel haven’t been adequately explained by other publications. Our contributors are journalists, scholars, and other experts working both inside and outside of China.

The ChinaFile Conversation regularly brings together a group of contributors to discuss and, often, to argue over recent China news.

ChinaFile also publishes The China NGO Project. More information is available here.

Our articles are syndicated by and co-published with a growing list of partner publications and other distinguished media outlets. ChinaFile’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The WorldPost, South China Morning Post, VICE, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Internazionale, Slate, The Intercept, Quartz, and The New York Review of Books, and we have regularly shared our work with Foreign Policy, the Financial Times Chinese, The WorldPost, Business Insider, and The News Lens.

We also curate, syndicate, and translate articles from a range of other publications. Our partners have included The New York Review of Books, Caixin, and the websites chinadialogue, Foreign Policy, CNPolitics, Sohu Business, Magnum Foundation, the Sinica Podcast, and The China Africa Project. We have also collaborated with The Hong Kong Economic Journal and with the bilingual arts and literature magazines LEAP and Chutzpah.

Funding

ChinaFile is a not-for-profit publication and we do not sell advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations to fulfill our mission. Our editorial operation is extremely lean and we devote nearly all of our resources to producing and editing the stories that appear on our site.

ChinaFile was established through generous support of the Arthur Ross Foundation. Further information on our current and past funders is available upon request.

If you visit our site often, enjoy the work we do, and believe, as we do, that non-profit organizations have a key role to play in sustaining and promoting journalistic excellence, please consider making a donation to support our work.

Events

In addition to our publishing work, ChinaFile also convenes the public events series ChinaFile Presents, which features discussions, screenings, and photography shows by our contributors. We have co-sponsored events with the New America Foundation, the Overseas Press Club of America, The New York Review of Books, and the Open Society Foundations, among others.

Our Chinese Name (中参馆)

Like the country we cover, our name contains multitudes and can be interpreted in many ways.

Our Chinese name was conceived and rendered graphically by Sun Yunfan. It contains the following Chinese characters:
中 (zhong), which means “central,” is the first character of the word for China. It can also mean neutral.
参 (can) means to join or to participate in, to refer, to consult, to reference, or to archive.
馆 (guan) is a word for a physical structure that appears in words for guest accommodations, libraries, museums, archives, and restaurants.

Put these characters together and, in addition to the many meanings suggested by their combination, they are a homophone for Chinese restaurant (中餐馆).

So, whether you see ChinaFile as a place for organizing and finding information, a tool for shaping your views, or an establishment with a large menu and fare to suit a variety of tastes, we invite you to visit us often.

We Welcome Your Feedback

Please email us your thoughts, comments, and reactions. Thank you!