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John Minford’s China Bookshelf
The veteran literary translator tells us how his collection began, why his library is called “Three Dog Hall,” and that New Zealand pine is the...
Red Pine: Channeling Silent Voices
Over 50 years and 30 books, the American Bill Porter — better known as “Red Pine” — has followed the trails and trials of China’s...
Food Writing with Clarissa Wei
The author of a new book of postpartum recovery recipes tells us what to eat while “sitting the month,” and how Taiwanese food is distinct...
Li Mingjie on Chinese Folk Belief
The academic and author walks us through Chinese folk religion today, from paper gods to ancestor worship, and explains how faith in China is fundamentally...
Wang Xiaoshuai on Chinese Cinema
The pioneering filmmaker discusses China’s movie industry from the 1990s to today, and what it feels like to be caught between the censors and the...
Ancient Chinese Politics with Daniel Bell
The Legalists and Confucians still run the show in today’s China, argues a scholar of classical Chinese thought — but the Mohists and Daoists still...
Confucius and Women with Erin Cline
Misogyny and patriarchy are a later misreading of The Analects, argues the author of a new translation of the Confucian classic.
How China’s Independent Bookstores Survive
Even as restrictions tighten in Beijing, independent bookstores in Chengdu have flourished — showing how offline community and public debate can thrive. But it’s hard.
Nan Z. Da and Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare and Mao
Two literary scholars explain what Shakespeare can tell us about China under Mao, and the nature of tyranny, in a China Books Review event at...
Jung Chang: A Grande Dame of China Writing
The author of “Wild Swans” and its new sequel made her name by introducing China to readers through personal history — but her later biographies...
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.
What China’s Listening To
We picked five albums that China’s Gen Z are listening to while lying flat, working, involuting, “running” abroad and pushing the envelope.
