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Chinese Comedy with Jesse Appell
The bilingual comedian talks us through the traditional “xiangsheng” form of Chinese comic repartee, and explains whether Beijing can take a joke.
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...
Chinese Horror with Xueting C. Ni
Horror writing has an unsavory reputation in China, but comes with a long history and is full of biting social commentary. The translator of a...
Sex, Scams and Sorcery with Bruce Rusk and Christopher Rea
Tales of trickery were popular in the late Ming dynasty. The translators of a new collection explain how they still resonate today.
Chris Horton on Taiwan’s History and Present
Colonized by the Dutch Republic, Qing China and Japan, Taiwan's complicated past led to a multi-layered identity today. We invited the author of a new...
Timothy Thurston on Tibetan Satire
Tibetans inside China have found various ways to push back against Beijing and voice their dissatisfaction. A lesser-known form of subtle resistance is the art...
China Conspiracy Theories
From Covid as a bioweapon to Chinese soldiers infiltrating America, Alexander Boyd discusses the right-wing conspiracy theories that lead our ranking of bestselling China books.
Mark Kitto on Shanghai in the 2000s
The author and former media mogul explains why he chose fiction as the best way to capture Shanghai’s go-go years in his new novel.
Michael Luo on the Chinese-American Story
The New Yorker writer discusses his new history of the Chinese in America, and immigrant identity from the Chinese Exclusion Act to Donald Trump.
Jenna Tang on Taiwan’s MeToo Movement
We talked to the translator of a novel that helped launch #MeToo in Taiwan, about why both the movement and the book are having a...
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.
Steven Schwankert on the Titanic’s Chinese Survivors
The author of "The Six" tells us about the Chinese survivors of the Titanic, and how they were met with racist scorn on arrival in...
