Books

03.29.18

Patriot Number One

Lauren Hilgers
Crown Publishing Group: In 2014, in a snow-covered house in Flushing, Queens, a village revolutionary from Southern China considered his options. Zhuang Liehong was the son of a fisherman, the former owner of a small tea shop, and the spark that had sent his village into an uproar—pitting residents against a corrupt local government. Under the alias Patriot Number One, he had stoked a series of pro-democracy protests, hoping to change his home for the better. Instead, sensing an impending crackdown, Zhuang and his wife, Little Yan, left their infant son with relatives and traveled to America. With few contacts and only a shaky grasp of English, they had to start from scratch.In Patriot Number One, Hilgers follows this dauntless family through a world hidden in plain sight: a byzantine network of employment agencies and language schools, of underground asylum brokers and illegal dormitories that Flushing’s Chinese community relies on for survival. As the irrepressibly opinionated Zhuang and the more pragmatic Little Yan pursue legal status and struggle to reunite with their son, we also meet others piecing together a new life in Flushing. Tang, a democracy activist who was caught up in the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, is still dedicated to his cause after more than a decade in exile. Karen, a college graduate whose mother imagined a bold American life for her, works part-time in a nail salon as she attends vocational school and refuses to look backward.With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Hilgers captures the joys and indignities of building a life in a new country—and the stubborn allure of the American dream.{chop}

Fighting on Behalf of China’s Women—From the United States

Luo Siling
New York Times
Among hundreds of thousands of women who took to the streets for the Women’s March on Washington were Lu Pin and more than 20 other Chinese feminists who live in the United States and belong to the Chinese Feminism Collective

Small Investors Join China’s Tycoons in Sending Money Abroad

Emily Feng and Alexandra Stevenson
New York Times
It's Chinese investors and a developer in Brooklyn- with a digital lending twist

An Open Letter to the Woman Who Told My Family to Go Back to China

Michael Luo
New York Times
To the well-dressed woman on the Upper East Side, annoyed by our stroller, that yelled "Go back to China...Go back to your f---ing country"

Depth of Field

09.12.16

African Migrants in Guangzhou, Forgetting, Family Planning’s Fate, and More...

Yan Cong, Ye Ming & more from Yuanjin Photo
Photographing the aftermath of catastrophic events is challenging—one that photographer Mu Li handles with creativity and grace looking back at the chemical explosion in Tianjin that damaged as many as 17,000 homes August 12, 2015. Another challenge...

Times Square Is Now In the Middle of a Fight Over the South China Sea

Beimeng Fu
Buzzfeed
China has taken its fight with the Philippines over who owns territory in the South China Sea to a whole new arena: Times Square. The state-run Xinhua announced Tuesday that a 3 minute long publicity video premiered on the Square’s “China...

How a New York Art Show about Chinese Online Censorship Found Itself Censored

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
When the artist behind the cafe tried to organize a round-table event, a speaker starting receiving threats from China.

Media

06.02.15

Top Chinese Authors Show Up at Book Expo, but Where Are the Readers?

Zhang Xiaoran
Last week, 20,000 publishers convened in New York’s Javits Center for BookExpo America (BEA), the publishing industry’s annual trade show. Among their ranks was a delegation from China 500 strong, attending the convention in the capacity of “guest...

Q. and A.: Luo Yufeng, a.k.a. Sister Feng, on Life as a Manicurist in New York

Vanessa Piao
New York Times
Sister Feng, whose real name is Luo Yufeng, is an Internet celebrity with more than 4.7 million followers on Sina Weibo

With Lunar New Year Show, Another Link to China for a New York Fireworks Family

Kirk Semple
New York Times
The Central Academy of Fine Arts, China’s largest art academy, is involved in the celebrations this year.

Hundreds of NYC’s Homeless Were Duped by a Chinese Millionaire Today

Olivia Becker
Vice News
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.

The Chinese Take Manhattan: Replace Russians as Top Apartment Buyers

Michelle Conlin and Maggie Lu Yueyang
Reuters
Many Chinese buyers are switching their interest away from markets like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore amid fears that prices have soared to frothy levels in those cities.

Giant Birds ‘Fly’ Inside St. John the Divine

Gisele Regatao
WNYC
Two giant birds Chinese artist Xu Bing created out of tools and debris are hanging inside The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights.