ChinaFile Recommends
09.23.16Mother’s Killing of 4 Children Reveals Cracks in Anti-Poverty Drive
Corruption, red tape has led to most vulnerable citizens receiving little help
ChinaFile Recommends
09.20.16A New Literary Genre Critiques the Scariest Part of Life in China: Reality
Quartz
Enter chaohuan, the "ultra-unreal"
Media
09.14.16The Chinese Democratic Experiment that Never Was
Protesters in southern China are up in arms. They feel that Beijing’s promises that they’d be able to vote for their own local leaders have been honored in the breach. They’re outraged at the show of force in the face of peaceful protest, and...
Depth of Field
09.12.16African Migrants in Guangzhou, Forgetting, Family Planning’s Fate, and 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...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.15.16China’s Coal Towns Are Literally Sinking
Fortune
Hundreds of thousands are being moved from regions made unsafe from coal companies.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.15.16China Pledges to Cut Size of Its Massive Fishing Fleet Due to Serious Threat to Nation’s Fish Stocks
South China Morning Post
The government said there were practically “no fish” in the coastal East China Sea.
Caixin Media
08.02.16Revival, Resistance for National Pension Push
Bridging the “regional divide” that separates affluent and less affluent areas is a main goal as the central government revives a stalled effort to form a nationwide pension system.The State Council, China’s cabinet, laid the groundwork for a...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.28.16Historic Flooding Costs China $44.7 Billion So Far This Year
Forbes
’Ruthless’ urbanization takes its toll.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.21.16China’s Short-Changing Its Future
Bloomberg
One of the most critical tasks is developing a workforce for the 21st century.
Environment
07.14.16South China Faces Worst Floods in Decades
from chinadialogue
It’s like someone poked a hole in the sky, the rain just keeps pouring down, you can’t breathe,” said Mrs Wu from Donghu, a district in Wuhan a city in central China with over 10 million residents. Mrs Wu lives in Chunshuli, an affluent neighborhood...
Depth of Field
07.01.16Tornados and Drag Queens
from Yuanjin Photo
Being a photojournalist involves reacting to breaking news, a dedication to long-term projects, and everything in between. This month’s showcase of work by Chinese photographers published in Chinese media underscores this range of angles: from the...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.16‘Destined to Disappear’: The Last Generation of China’s ‘Bang-Bang’ Army
New York Times
Itinerant porters face a vocational extinction in the towering hills of Chongqing....
Conversation
06.24.16Is Europe Prepared to Deal with the China Challenge?
Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a grand tour of the western end of the “New Silk Road,” in visits to Serbia and Poland this week before he returns to Beijing via Uzbekistan, a more eastern outpost on China’s expanding 21st Century trade route. Xi...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.22.16Skepticism in China After Wukan Confession
Wall Street Journal
Chinese protesters are not convinced by Mr. Lin’s video confession.....
ChinaFile Recommends
06.22.16Chinese Official Whose Arrest Stirred Protests Confesses To Taking Bribes
New York Times
Mr. Lin is detained on suspicion of recieving bribes and abuse of power....
Books
06.22.16Tibetan Environmentalists in China
This book weaves together the life stories of five extraordinary contemporary Tibetans involved in environmental protection (as well as a host of secondary characters): Tashi Dorje, a well-known and celebrated environmentalist; Karma Samdrup, a philanthropist, businessman, and environmentalist; Rinchen Samdrup, Karma’s brother, another extraordinary environmentalist; Gendun, a painter, historian, and researcher from Amdo; and Musuo, a Tibetan from the Dechin area of northwest Yunnan who founded the Khawakarpo Culture Society.In the politically fraught and ever-worsening situation for Tibetans within China today, it is often said that the only possible path for a better solution will be through a change in the way that the majority Chinese society thinks about and understands Tibetans, their aspirations, histories, and desires. This book provides the first such account by drawing readers in with beautiful narrative prose and fascinating stories, and then using their attention to demystify Tibetans, cultivating in the reader a sense of empathy as well as facts upon which to rebuild an intercultural understanding. It is the first work that seriously aims to let the Chinese public understand Tibetans as both products of an admirable culture and as complex individuals negotiating religious ideals, economic change, and sociopolitical constraints. In short it opens up a whole new way of understanding Tibet. —Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books {chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
06.20.16Hundreds of Residents of South China 'Rebel' Village Protest, Poised for Showdown
Reuters
Villagers called for the return of seized land and the release of a former protest leader who was elected village chief in 2012.
Media
05.31.16Will China’s ‘Taobao Villages’ Spur a Rural Revolution?
from chinadialogue
The province of Shanxi, in northern China, is famous for coal mining, and the industry’s impact is etched across the landscape. But the province’s southern counties, which lie near the Yellow River, are known for a very different commodity—red dates...
Depth of Field
05.31.16Families, Weddings, and Beekeepers
from Yuanjin Photo
This month’s Depth of Field column brings the stories of Chinese adoption; the marriage ceremony of Hu Mingliang and Sun Wenlin, a gay couple who filed the first civil rights marriage lawsuit to be accepted by a Chinese court (they lost); beekeepers...
Green Space
05.11.16The Dark Side of Country Life
The last time we peeked at Lei Hu’s photo blog, Lei was giving us a cheery look at a China that we rarely get to see: the countryside and its beauty. But there’s a dark side to country life in China, as well, and a new blog post from Lei explores...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.10.16China to Relocate Two Million People in Bid to Tackle Poverty
Telegraph
People from poverty-stricken communities are relocated to more developed urban areas as part of a wide-ranging plan to tackle poverty.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.09.16In Sichuan Province, an Artisan Retreats to China’s Past
New York Times
Hanshan, an ethnic Miao, survives by selling the clothing he dyes to the same people he considers too materialistic.
Depth of Field
04.29.16April’s Best Chinese Photojournalism
from Yuanjin Photo
Over the past few weeks, the publications Sina, Tencent, Caixin, China Youth Daily, and the publishing duo Sixth Tone/The Paper published photo stories on the intimate, the industrial, the private, and the political. Journalists Yan Cong and Ye Ming...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.28.16China Sees Childhood Obesity 'Explosion' in Rural Provinces
CNBC
The study cites three major reasons for the uptick in childhood obesity: cultural background, poor diet and and a lack of physical activity.
Depth of Field
04.03.16Meet ‘Depth of Field’: The Month’s Best Chinese Photojournalism
from Yuanjin Photo
Welcome to ChinaFile’s inaugural “Depth of Field” column. In collaboration with Yuanjin Photo, an independent photo blog published by photographers Yan Cong and Ye Ming on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, we will highlight new and...
Caixin Media
04.01.16China’s Rural Youngsters Drop Out of School at Alarming Rate
Like many other teenagers in his village in the mountains of the northwestern province of Shaanxi, Chen Youliang decided to quit school early so he could follow in the footsteps of his migrant worker parents and find a job in a big city.Chen, who...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.11.16China Premier Urges More Efforts in Restive Uighur Heartland
Reuters
China's violence-prone region of Xinjiang needs to make more efforts at development to ensure young people have "something to do and money to earn."
Sinica Podcast
02.09.16Sauced: American Cooking in China
from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are joined this week by Howie Southworth and Greg Matza, creators of the independent video series “Sauced in Translation,” a reality show that journeys into the wilder parts of China in search of local Chinese specialties...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.09.16Chinese New Year Fireworks So Dangerous That Only Few Get to Witness
ABC
In Nuanquan village, there is traditional a pyrotechnic display so unique and dangerous that it is still only found here.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.09.16Invisible Bridges
New Yorker
Over the past two centuries, there have been periodic tensions between Russia and China, including some serious border conflicts, and historically Russia has usually held the upper hand. But nowadays, at the personal level, Monteleone notices a...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.08.16Millions of Chinese Migrant Workers Head Home for New Year
Voice of America
Every year tens of millions of Chinese migrant workers head home in the largest annual mass migration of people.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.03.16‘Eyes on China’: Illuminating Life Across a Changing Country
New York Times
Two photographers living in China set up a collective Instagram account.
Green Space
01.22.16Sea Level Rise In Pictures, Cancer Villages Near Beijing
I think a big part of the reason why citizens of the world have not rallied to deal with climate change is the lack of a certain deadline that would warrant our immediate response to the grave consequences of our warming planet. There is no...
Environment
01.19.16Is Industrial Farming a Tech-Fix or Dead End for Tackling Climate Change?
from chinadialogue
Researchers estimate that between 44 and 57 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) come from the global food system. Agriculture and deforestation caused by agriculture account for 26-33 percent of total emissions, making it a major...
Green Space
01.14.16Waking the Green Tiger
This documentary—available in full on ChinaFile throughout January courtesy of filmmaker Gary Marcuse—follows a group of environmental activists trying to prevent the construction of dams on the Nu (Salween) and the Upper Yangtze (Jinsha) rivers in...
Video
12.30.15Drinking the Northwest Wind
Like so many of Mao’s pronouncements, it sounded simple. “The South has a lot of water; the North lacks water. So if it can be done, borrowing a little water and bringing it up might do the trick.” And thus, in 1952, the spark was lit for what would...
Environment
11.11.15China’s Bottled Water Industry to Exploit Tibetan Plateau
from chinadialogue
Tibet wants to bottle up much more of the region’s water resources, despite shrinking glaciers and the impact that exploitation of precious resources would have on neighboring countries.This week, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s government released a...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.09.15Chinese Farmer Burns to Death in Dispute over 'Nail House'
CNN
Land seizures, driven by soaring prices and a push for urban expansion, have been a major source of popular discontent in China, often resulting in violent stand-offs between officials and the public.
Features
10.27.15Rich Man, Pu’er Man
“These men always have machetes,” shouts the driver. Through trees along an unpaved road, he spots a ramshackle hut, slows down, and warns his passengers: this is a checkpoint. It’s the only way to enforce rules in this part of the jungle, at the...
Environment
10.22.15China's Boom Has Hurt Wetlands, Threatens Extinction of Rare Birds
from chinadialogue
The destruction of China’s wetlands, which are critical stopping points for birds migrating as far away as the Arctic or the South Pacific, threatens mass extinctions of species across East Asia, new research has found.Besides providing shelter and...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.30.15China Micromanages Tibet, Floods It With Money to Woo Locals
Tablet
Nearly 6,500 civil servants have been dispatched to manage hefty budgets and shape Tibet's modernization.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.23.15Suicide Bombings in China: Beyond Terrorism
Diplomat
A suicide bomber attacked a park in Heze in China’s Shandong province, killing two (including the bomber) and injuring 24, with three people receiving “relatively severe” injuries.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.23.15China May Adopt 'Two-child Policy, Demographic Timebomb Looms
Guardian
China could be on the verge of introducing a two-child policy, under which all Chinese couples would be allowed to have two children.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.22.15Myanmar Gives 153 Chinese Life in Jail for Illegal Logging
Associated Press
A court in Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in prison on after convicting them of illegal logging in a case that has already strained relations with Beijing.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.22.15China Probes Senior Xinjiang Security Official For Graft
Reuters
A deputy regional security chief and former head of the prison system, Xie Hui, in Xinjiang has been put under investigation for suspected corruption.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.22.15Chinese Police Seize Ashes of Tibetan Monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche
New York Times
Chinese police forcibly seized the ashes of a prominent Tibetan monk whose death in prison set off public demonstrations.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.21.15This Instagram Account Offers a New Perspective on China
Time
Some photographs show the surprisingly mundane moments in the life of regular Chinese, such as Albertazzi’s image of a group of men playing cards in their swim shorts on a hot summer afternoon in Beijing; others are images from long-term documentary...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.16.15Biggest Ever Winged Dinosaur is Found in China
Guardian
An ancient feathered creature dug up in northeastern China is the largest winged dinosaur ever found, researchers say.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.15.15China Detains South Africans, Britons Accused of Viewing 'Terror' Videos
Reuters
China detained nine foreign tourists including South Africans, Britons and an Indian national.
Photo Gallery
06.28.15On the Kang: A Chinese Family Album
In rural northern China, the kang is the heart of the home. The two meter wide brick platforms, heated beneath by a coal, wood, straw, or corn cob fire, are hearth, family bed, and living room all rolled into one. Especially during the winter when...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.15Why is China's Female Prison Population Growing?
BBC
Women comprise just 6.3% of China's prison population. If trends continue, within five years, China will imprison more women than the United States.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.15Rare Access to China's Restive Far West
CNN
Raphael Fournier's "Around Taklamakan," is a series of photographs from China's Xinjiang province which emphasize cultural tensions and daily life.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.15China to Boost Textile Industry in Xinjiang
Shanghai Daily
China's cabinet issued a guideline on Thursday to bolster the textile and garment industry in the western Xinjiang region in the hope of increasing local employment and exports.