Feature

How Residents Are Rebuilding Shanghai’s Urban Communities

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

MULTIMEDIA

Echo Fu

Shanghai’s CIIF Showcases Latest in Robotics and Green Innovation

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 two-year hiatus, the China International Industry Fair hosted 2,800 exhibitors from more than 30 countries this year, highlighting new materials, smart logistic systems, and 5G technologies.

Sixth Tone

Myriam Kryger on How Rivers Inspire the Flow of Art, Ideas

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

SIXTH TONE ×

The former French cultural attache on the importance of creating space for face-to-face interactions that inspire fresh ideas and exchanges.

Our Water

Hit New Film Offers a Striking Portrait of Beijing’s Migrant Villages

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

Liang Junjian’s award-winning new documentary “Bitter Sweet Ballad” has shocked viewers with its portrayal of the lives of migrant children in Beijing.

Mathew Scott

Bullseye 

20230922

A competitor flies through a target during the precision target competition of the 2023 Wingsuit Flying World Championships at the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, Sept. 16, 2023. VCG

Sashimi Slump

On Chinese Web Literature Overseas

China’s Web Literature Popularity Continues to Grow Overseas

On Stage and in a Wheelchair

Zhao Hongcheng has made hundreds of videos about the challenges of life as a disabled person. Now she’s starring in a hit play about her life.

DAILY TONES

DailyTones

Industry representatives are starting to compare Chinese online literature with Hollywood films and K-dramas in terms of global reach.

Ding Rui

China Can Use Big Data to Tackle Climate Health Impacts: Report 

From infectious diseases to mental health issues, China faces a litany of public health challenges as a result of climate change. Part of the solution may be highly specific health interventions using big data to identify vulnerable groups, a new report from the World Economic Forum suggests.

Zhu Junxi

Huge Demand for Esports Tickets at Hangzhou Asian Games

A lottery system was used to allocate tickets for esports, which is making its debut as a medaled event at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Ye Zhanhang

Jiang Zuer

In Laos, a New Railway Signals a Future in China’s Orbit

In Laos, a new $6 billion rail line is driving rapid social and economic changes — and bringing China ever closer.

Swipe Right to Hire Me: How Tinder Became China’s Hottest Networking App

Young Chinese are increasingly using the dating app to hunt for potential job openings amid soaring graduate unemployment. But the trend is sparking concern among the platform’s users — and inside Tinder itself.

Shu Xinrou

China’s Last Esperanto Students

China used to have one of the world’s largest communities of Esperanto speakers. But the language is now in danger of disappearing from the country completely.

He Kai

Wu Huiyuan 

360° Video: The ‘Hanzi Modern’ Exhibit 

Sixth Tone unveiled “Hanzi Modern: The Past, Present, and Future of Chinese Fonts,” an exhibition dedicated to the technology, culture, politics, and history behind Chinese fonts’ digital transformation.

The Hungry Dead and the Envoys of Hell: China’s Ghost Festival

Costumed parades in the street, spectral drawings, and religious ceremonies illustrate how the Chinese celebrate Ghost Festival.

Sheng Wenqiang

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

VOICES & OPINION

Liu Qing

Putting a Price on an International Education

An inside look at China’s wildly expensive, ever-expanding international education industry.

Zheng Jiawen

Suzhou Creek, Seine Meet in First Season of Our Water

Our Water: Shanghai Launches Program to Promote Global Culture Flow

City teams up with Paris for the first year of a river-inspired initiative that aims to promote international exchanges and cooperation with world metropolises.

Laos

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Dongbei

Henan

Metro

BRI Archaeology

The Historian Rewriting China’s Understanding of the World

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

Q & A

Qian Chengdan is one of China’s best-known historians. In a new book, he and his team attempt to produce a comprehensive Marxist history of the world.

Wu Haiyun

Event: Modernizing China’s ‘Kingdom of Characters’

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Three experts will talk about the modernization of Chinese font design, including an exclusive talk by Yale University professor and Pulitzer Prize finalist Jing Tsu.

The Dark Reality of Telecom Fraud in Northern Myanmar

The booming telecom fraud industry in northern Myanmar brings corruption, violence, kidnapping, and forced labor to a region with a long history of crime, The Paper’s investigation finds.

The Paper

What Exactly Is the ‘Dongbei Renaissance’?

Four commentators on how — and why — the country’s northeastern rust belt reached the forefront of Chinese pop culture.

The Villages Caught Up in China’s Massive Panda Conservation Drive

China has created a giant new national park to protect its wild pandas. There’s just one problem: Tens of thousands of people already live there.

Ni Dandan

Witches and ‘Poisonous Cats’: A Scholar’s Search for Society’s Scapegoats

Wang Mingke has spent his life studying marginalized communities in China’s far west. That work has helped him better understand everything from anti-Asian hate to social media polarization.