Logging Unpaid Hours

When a state-run sawmill from the Mao era privatized and eventually closed, its female workers were denied fair compensation. Its story doubles as an alternate history of China’s feminist protest movement.

Sins of the Father

Xi Zhongxun, one of China’s early communist revolutionaries, tried to balance reformist instincts with loyalty to the Party. His failure left an indelible mark on his son, Xi Jinping.

From the Archive

Yu Hua: Fictional Cities

The bestselling Chinese novelist foregrounds individual suffering in the chaos of modern Chinese history. In his latest novel in translation, gratuitous violence shows the limits of fiction.

No Country for Women

Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite Communist Party slogans about women's liberation. Two novels by the Chinese writer Fang Fang show how gendered oppression persists throughout political change.