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An American Marine In China’s Red Army

In 1937, a U.S. military officer set off with Mao Zedong’s troops to raid Japanese-occupied territory in the north of China. The Communist guerillas, he...

Announcing the 2024 Winners

Presenting the winners (and honorable mentions) for the 2024 Baifang Schell Book Prize, with awards in both nonfiction and translated literature.

Dancing in Chains

Squeezed by both political and commercial pressures, China’s book publishers face an existential crisis. How can the industry survive, let alone publish anything interesting?

Ep. 20: Linda Jaivin on the Cultural Revolution

The writer and China watcher talks us through her microhistory of Mao’s last decade in power, and its relevance to Trump’s MAGA movement.

Yan Geling: Crossing the Red Line

The acclaimed novelist and screenwriter built an audience in China for her powerful historical narratives. Then, somewhere, she crossed a line. What is it like...

Translated Chinese Literature: Short Fiction

Short stories are all the rage in Chinese, but get short shrift in the West. We picked five recent translated collections, from riveting horror tales...

For All the Trees in China

For over a century, Chinese rulers have launched tree-planting campaigns, to benefit the environment and build the nation. But did their rousing rhetoric actually lead...

Ann Bridge: Peking Picnic

A 1930s novel of manners with evocative descriptions of Old Beijing offers surprisingly timeless observations about what it means to be an expat in China.

The Race to Type in Chinese

The Chinese typewriter was thought to be an impossible invention. Then they made one. In the computer age, creating a digital input system for Chinese...