Feature

How a Rotten Apple Brought China’s Internet Into a Mushroom Lab

Timely reports on issues and events from across China. Drawing on a vast range of sources, these succinct articles provide insights into the significance of each issue in a wider context.

NEWS

After a mushroom grew from an apple, researchers turned online curiosity into a two-year breeding project with help from samples sent in from across China.

He Qitong

End of the Vine: China’s ‘Calabash Grandpa’ Cuts Down His Famous Gourds

Seven gourds growing outside his home turned the elderly resident into an online celebrity after visitors linked them to the beloved Chinese cartoon “Calabash Brothers.”

Fan Yiying

When China’s Star Intellectuals Fly Too Close to the Sun

Contributions from individuals with unique perspectives to share. Hear from everyone, from experts and commentators to those whose voices are often marginalized.

VOICES & OPINION

Chinese academics, writers, and journalists are expected to do everything. As the Zhuge Yiyang controversy shows, many wind up with nothing.

Cai Yineng

Did AI Find Murakami’s Voice? Student’s $2 Experiment Divides China’s Literati

Articles that cut to the core of contemporary China. In-depth, informed, and carefully crafted, every piece is carried by the voices of the story’s participants.

FEATURES

A literature undergrad’s AI tool made a near-perfect Mandarin version of Haruki Murakami’s new novel in just four hours. What might this mean for translators and copyright holders?

Wang Juyi

Morning Catch

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DAILY TONES

DAILYTONE

China Moves to Address Self-Driving Cars in National Law

A proposed amendment to the nation’s national traffic law distinguishes between autonomous driving vehicles and driver assistance functions, as well as allocates responsibility in the event of traffic violations.

Chen Yiru

China Gives Schools More Flexibility as Enrollment Shrinks

Multiple cities are opening schools that combine educational levels and offer flexible enrollment models to counter falling primary school numbers.

Scammers Are Targeting China’s Content Creators for Ransoms

The practice, known as “account striking,” targets short-video creators, falsely accusing them of platform violations to extract ransoms.

Two Filmmakers, 1,100 Villages, and a Race to Record Rural China

After once leaving rural China behind, two filmmakers returned to document the farmers and workers whose stories are fading from view as the countryside changes.

Jiang Xinyi

Inside the Chinese AI Studio Shrinking Short-Drama Crews to One

Former animators, cinematographers, and VFX artists are helping build AI systems that can script, storyboard, generate, and revise short dramas with unprecedented speed.

Inside China’s Shift From Short-Drama Sets to AI Factories

Visual stories that get up close and personal with contemporary China. A mix of short videos, documentaries, photography, and data visualization.

MULTIMEDIA

Lü Xiao

Between Two Needles: The Chinese Garment Factory Built Around Dialysis

Wu Huiyuan 

Through the Eyes of Shop Cats

For a decade, Dutch photographer Marcel Heijnen has documented China’s shop cats — and the neighborhoods fading alongside them.

Can VR Capture the Power of China’s Ancient Caves?

At Dunhuang, new technologies are opening up the Mogao Grottoes while helping protect the fragile art that has survived there for more than a thousand years.

Chen Xi

Chinese Cinema Turns Its Lens Outward

“Once Upon a Time in the Middle East” is something new in China: a film about the outside world that treats its location as more than just a backdrop.

Wu Haiyun

Remembering Gyirong: The Bustling Port That Vanished in a Flash

Translations, cross-publications, and collaborative projects from Sixth Tone’s external partners. 

SIXTH TONE ×

Frequent visitors to the China-Nepal border crossing wait anxiously for signs of life as rescuers search for those missing in the Aug. 26 mudslide.

Original (Jiefang Daily)

Eye of the Storm: Viral Podcaster Breaks Silence Over Plagiarism Scandal

A Chinese podcaster famed for grilling filmmaker Christopher Nolan takes shelter from claims she lifts content from overseas sources.

Jiefang Daily

The Many Lives of Chaoshan

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Once known mainly for its merchants and overseas networks, Chaoshan is back in the spotlight. This series examines how the region’s past and present offer insights into modern China.

Sixth Tone

Ten Years in Transition

To mark its 10th anniversary, Sixth Tone looks back on the past decade through 10 stories documenting how people across China adapted to change.

Shanghai Sessions: Four Notes From a City in Swing

A brief history of the misfits, migrants, and mavericks who improvised a musical revolution.

The Lost Art of Chinese Purple

The nearly 3,000-year-old synthetic pigment’s invention has long been a mystery. Now, archaeologists think they’ve finally cracked the code.

The Big Switch

China is producing EVs at an unprecedented scale, reshaping industries, economies, and daily life. Sixth Tone unpacks what’s working, what’s breaking down, and what’s next in a race that’s upending the global auto market.

China Before the Infinite Camera Roll

Your questions, answered. In-depth interviews with the minds and makers shaping today’s China.

Q & A

Thomas Sauvin’s archive of discarded family negatives captures an era when 36 photos could document years of birthdays, travel, and everyday life.

Our Water: Shanghai, London Exchange Cultural Currency

The latest news about Sixth Tone and announcements about its events, projects, and other initiatives.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A coin exhibition, forum, and night of culinary fusion in London kick off the second season of Our Water, Shanghai’s river-themed cultural exchange program.

Our Water

After Nolan Interview Fame, Chinese Scholar Accused of Plagiarism

Zhuge Yiyang was catapulted to international academic stardom for her viral interview with Christopher Nolan. Now, Chinese social media users say they’ve found evidence she plagiarized others’ works.

A Chef Caught in a Middle East War Is China’s Latest Hit

“Once Upon a Time in the Middle East,” one of China’s top-grossing films this summer, centers on a Chinese restaurant owner who saves local orphans during a war in the region.

Li Xin

‘Just So Easy’: Why China’s Gen Z Prefers Credit Without the Card

Credit card ownership is plummeting across China, but young consumers are still borrowing, increasingly through food-delivery, shopping, and payment apps.

Xu Ruishuo

No Smoke Without Ire: China’s Campuses Struggle to Stub Out Cigarettes

A lack of anti-smoking policies at Chinese universities is forcing students affected by secondhand smoke to suffer in silence — or take matters into their own hands.