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Books for Uncertain Times

China’s economy is unsteady, its publishing industry facing hard times — yet interesting books continue to come out. Here are five of them, from psychotherapy...

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?

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...

The Nanny’s Tale

A migrant worker leaves her own child behind to survive, becoming a nanny in Beijing. When she hears of a literary community for migrants, she...

Emily Feng on Identity in Xi Jinping’s China

The award-winning NPR correspondent talks about her new book, the challenges of reporting in China, and what it means to be Chinese when the state...

The Thief Who Became a Celebrity

When Zhou Liqi went viral for stealing scooters to protest lack of opportunity, he sparked a debate between the popular movement of “lying flat” and...

Workers of the World, Rewrite!

A Chinese non-fiction writer finds himself in the same straits as the migrant laborer-artists of Picun village whom he profiles.

Socialism with Socratic Characteristics

In attempting to justify Communist Party rule, Chinese academics have turned to an unlikely intellectual ally — classical Greek philosophy.

Ian Johnson on China Correspondence, from 1984 to Now

The Pulitzer-winning journalist tells the story of his first trip to China in 1984, and how it changed his views on foreign reporting.

Liao Yiwu: The Storyteller

Since the 1990s, Liao Yiwu has been gathering oral histories of Chinese experience, from the everyday to the extraordinary. Then in 2011, harangued by the...