The Runaways

Young Chinese have been moving away from big cities into rust-belt towns with cheap housing and less pressure. A new book asks what they’re running away from.

Islamic China with Rian Thum

Islam has been part of China’s religious and cultural fabric for over a millennium, yet often it is seen as a foreign element. The author of a new study explains just how wrong that is.

Zhang Feng on China's New Media

The social media blogger explains how censorship works in the era of WeChat, and talks us through a changing media landscape, in our new column on the biggest ideas out of China.

From the Archive

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.