Jeremy Goldkorn is an editor and writer whose work has focused on China, and he is an Editorial Fellow with ChinaFile. He co-founded the Sinica Podcast in 2010, and was Editor-in-Chief of The China Project from 2016 to 2023. Goldkorn moved from his hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa to China in 1995 and became Managing Editor of Beijing’s first independent English-language entertainment magazine. He later edited and founded several other publications, including the website Danwei, which tracked Chinese media, markets, politics, and business, and was acquired in 2013 by The Financial Times. While in China, he lived in a workers dormitory, produced a documentary film about African soccer players in Beijing, and rode a bicycle from Peshawar to Kathmandu via Kashgar and Lhasa. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2015. He is a graduate of the University of Cape Town.

Last Updated: February 1, 2024

For Chinese Writers, a Room of Their Own on Fifth Avenue

Jeremy Goldkorn
Accent Sisters is a New York publisher, bookstore, event space, and online network dedicated to fostering Chinese and Asian diaspora creative writing and culture. It is a strong facilitator and participant in the Chinese cultural scene organically...

A Family Derailed: On Writing ‘Trains’

Zha Jianying, Jeremy Goldkorn & more
ChinaFile recently published “Trains: A Chinese Family History of Railway Journeys, Exile, and Survival,” by Zha Jianying, the journalist and author of some of the most memorable recent books on contemporary China and particularly Chinese culture...

The Sichuan Pepper Guy

Jeremy Goldkorn
Yao Zhao is the founder of 50Hertz Tingly Foods, a company that sells Sichuan peppercorns (花椒, huajiao) and a variety of oils and snacks made with them. His first career was in clean energy development and rural electrification, but last year he...

“The Dating Game” in China

Jeremy Goldkorn & Violet Du Feng
Violet Du Feng has produced and directed more than a dozen documentary films about China. Her latest is The Dating Game, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Filmed in Chongqing, the film follows a group of desperate bachelors...

A New Global Scene for Independent Chinese Film

Jeremy Goldkorn
On November 6, the IndieChina Film Festival announced its cancellation because of pressure from authorities on China-based filmmakers and participants.This November, two unrelated festivals of independent Chinese-language films are taking place...

Media

04.30.25

ChinaFile Presents: ‘The Party’s Interests Come First’

Joseph Torigian & Jeremy Goldkorn
Joseph Torigian discusses the life of Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, and how his legacy shapes the worldview of one of the world’s most powerful leaders today. Torigian’s new book, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father...

The Paradox of Bride Price in Contemporary China: Q&A with Shirley Xinyi Cai

Jeremy Goldkorn & Shirley Xinyi Cai
Shirley Xinyi Cai is a researcher in comparative politics and political theory, pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at McGill University. One of her ongoing projects is about the caili (彩礼, i.e. bride price or betrothal gift), a deep-rooted...

Media

11.26.24

ChinaFile Presents: ‘Her Lotus Year,’ a Conversation with Paul French

Paul French & Jeremy Goldkorn
Paul French is a prolific author of books on pre-revolutionary 20th Century China and the stories of foreigners who lived and worked there, including the bestselling true-crime history, Midnight in Peking. His work is based on traditional historical...

From Wild Exuberance to State Control in China’s Art Market

Jeremy Goldkorn & Kejia Wu
The scholar and journalist Kejia Wu is the author of A Modern History of China’s Art Market, a fascinating book that examines the relationship between the Chinese government’s push for cultural “soft power” and its desire for control. In the book,...

Media

03.07.24

ChinaFile Presents: A Wild Ride through China’s Economy with Author Anne Stevenson-Yang

Anne Stevenson-Yang & Jeremy Goldkorn
The 1980s were an extraordinary time of hope in China, both for its citizens and for foreign visitors. Anne Stevenson-Yang first went to China in 1985, where she was enchanted by the lively cultural scene and what seemed to be the growing openness...

Sinica Podcast

03.06.18

Courts & Torts: Driving the Chinese Legal System

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
“Having read hundreds and hundreds of these cases, I have decided that I’m never going to drive in China.” That is what Benjamin Liebman, the director of the Center for Chinese Legal Studies at Columbia University, concluded after his extensive...

Sinica Podcast

03.01.18

Can Chinese Journalists Criticize the Party-State?

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
Outside observers typically view China’s media as utterly shackled by the bonds of censorship, unable to critique the government or speak truth to power in any meaningful sense. In part, this is true. Censorship and other pressures do create “no-go...

Recommended Links

via
Danwei
07.23.12

Xinhua reported on Monday morning that the death toll after torrential rains pounded Beijing on Saturday had climbed to 37. The report said that “Among the victims, 25 were drowned, six were killed in house collapses, one by lightening strike and five were electrocuted.”

Topics: Environment, Media
via
Danwei
07.10.12

A spokesman for the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced yesterday that some original drama series and films on video websites like Youku.com and Tudou.com don’t meet government censorship standards and contain unacceptable dirty language, violence and sex. In the future, original productions for the internet will...

Topics: Media