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

Q & A

q-&-a

The Making of Yunnan

Historian Yang Bin shares his thoughts on Yunnanese history, his unique approach to the region, and how border areas shape a state.

Wu Haiyun

What’s Love to a Feminist?

The feminist cultural critic Dai Jinhua shares her thoughts on intersectionality, love, and the shrinking space for alternative lifestyles in contemporary China.

A Key Plank of China’s Planned Economy Is Making a Comeback. Why?

The revival of grassroots supply and marketing cooperatives has raised fears of a backslide. But the real reason for their return has gone largely ignored.

Cai Yineng

A Woman of No Significance

When historian Luo Xin began experimenting with “microhistory,” his colleagues were dismissive. Then his biography of a fifth century palace maid became one of the biggest books of 2022.

Digging Into the Shang Dynasty’s Empire of Bones

For centuries, the rulers of China’s first dynasty practiced a brutal form of human sacrifice. What did it mean? And more importantly, why did they stop?

China’s Dejected Youth Find a New Anti-Hero: a ‘Trashy’ Wannabe Rapper

Aspiring hip-hop star Big Sponge has few fans, fewer friends, and so little money that he has to collect recycling waste to make some extra cash. But his story — captured in the award-winning film “Trashy Boy” — has resonated with disaffected young Chinese.

Yuan Ye

Is Confucius Really Dead?

Sociologist Zhao Dingxin, author of “The Confucian-Legalist State,” on the demise of Confucianism, the resilience of Legalism, and the structural sources of individual power.

Recovering the Forgotten History of China’s Constitution

For legal scholar Tian Lei, the past is preamble.

How the Lockdown Is Remaking Shanghai Neighborhoods

Sociologist Sun Zhe has studied Shanghai community organizations for over a decade. He believes the ramifications of the current lockdown will be felt far into the future.

How the Cold War Challenged Sino-African American Solidarity 

Facing a rising tide of reaction, the links between Black intellectuals and nationalist and left Chinese took on new importance.