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

VOICES & OPINION

When Big Tech Needed Mothers in Rural China to Train AI

China’s rural data-labeling centers relied on mothers who could work, care for children and hold households in place all at once. Now many of those same women are being judged unfit for the future of AI.

Wu Tongyu

Behind China’s AI Boom Are Computer Rooms Full of Rural Workers

In the country’s less-developed hinterlands, labeling data to train AI models has become a poverty-alleviation tool.

A Decade of Overwatch in China

In the 10 years since the game launched in 2016, there have been highs, lows, and everything in between. It is no exaggeration to say that Overwatch would not be what it is in China without the fans.

Chen Menghan

The Enthusiasm and Anxiety Behind China’s OpenClaw Craze

While plenty of Chinese AI users see the new technology as a tool for creativity and convenience, others use it just to not fall behind.

Zhan Beibei

Inside Shenzhen’s High-Tech Version of the Food Bank

China’s tech hub has developed a discreet, high-tech system where vulnerable residents can pick up free groceries. Now, it faces a tougher task: building a steadier pipeline of donations by giving companies more reason to participate.

Li Xueshi

How a Buddha Got Its Sight Back

A stone Buddha’s eyes are symbols of its religious power, but many have been lost over the years. Can collectors help them find their way home?

Jin Yu

Think Wuxia Is Past Its Prime? Think Again.

Since masters of the genre like Jin Yong penned their epics, there has been a growing female wuxia authorship that speaks to increased cultural confidence, a diversity of voices, and all-new takes on classic settings.

Xueting C. Ni

How China’s Deaf Delivery Riders Find a New Life in Gig Work

Algorithm-dominated work feels like oppression to many. But couriers with hearing disabilities feel like they finally get fair treatment.

Qian Linliang

When Shakespeare Meets Shanxi Opera

A Pu opera adaptation of “Othello” shows how cross-cultural experiments can falter when historical context and character psychology fail to align.

Chen Tian

Has China Fallen Out of Love With Love?

Facing mounting uncertainty, many young Chinese are asking if love is too much of a risk. As uncertainty deepens, many young Chinese are coming to see love less as destiny than as a risk to manage.

Liu Zixi

Inside the Linguistic and Cultural Rebellion of the ‘Mudan’

Once banished, the mudan’s iconoclastic nature has reigned supreme in the springtime, from its refusal to fit into neat linguistic categories to its enduring allure to this day.