Society Archives | China Books Review

Xiang Biao on a Society at the Edge

An anthropologist with a wide youth following and a knack for popularizing academic terms explains how China’s stratified society led to social malaise amid economic...

A Chinese Intellectual in Oxford

In the 1930s Chiang Yee, a Chinese writer and artist, moved to England. His work, and that of his wartime circle of Chinese literati, deserve...

Liang Hong on Youth Depression in China

An author famous for her observations on China's village life turns her attention to the mental health of its adolescents.

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.

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...

A Day in the Life of an Internet Censor

China’s social media boom let its people speak out — but its censorship network silenced them. One of those censors reveals what happens behind the...

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.

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...

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...

Hongbin Li: How the Gaokao Shapes China

The U.S.-based academic discusses why China’s college entrance exam system retains popular support despite its hardships, and how the gaokao’s influence can spread overseas.

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...

Sex Sells

A book on prostitution in China asks sex workers how they see the industry, the state and themselves.

China Books Review

Topic: Society