history

The Shanghai Museum Keeping Memories Of Jewish Refugees Alive

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

Established in 2007, the city’s Jewish Refugee Museum is dedicated to telling the stories of Holocaust survivors.

Sixth Tone

The Making of Yunnan

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

Q & A

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

Wu Haiyun

How China’s Silk Road Ambitions Are Reshaping the World of Archaeology

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

Until a decade ago, Chinese archaeologists had never conducted major excavations overseas. Now, as China pours funding into Silk Road research, they are quietly transforming our understanding of the ancient world.

How a Forgotten Park Birthed a Revolution

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

VOICES & OPINION

After the collapse of the Qing dynasty, Taoran Pavilion in Beijing became a ghost town — and a hangout for the country’s aspiring revolutionaries.

Lin Zheng

Dining Cars: How an On-Board Snack Became a Guangdong Legend

They weren’t fancy. They weren’t even Cantonese. But for generations of Guangzhou-Kowloon through train riders, the fresh chicken legs served on board made the whole trip worth it.

Cao Yu

Family Records: The Story of China’s Largest Genealogy Collection

In the 1960s, a city librarian went rogue and saved thousands of priceless documents.

Huang Wei

How Liang Qichao Rewrote China’s Future

Although better known today as a reformer and activist, Liang also composed the first work of Chinese sci-fi.

Emily Xueni Jin

Reverse Alchemy: The Chinese Emperor Who Turned Silver Into Tin

Zhu Yuanzhang took silver from the shrines of China’s richest region to fund his rebellion. When he won, he paid families back in tin — and inadvertently started a mourning ritual that has lasted centuries.

Pan Weilin

Heaven’s ATM: How Chinese People Have Been Sending Money to the Afterlife For Centuries

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

MULTIMEDIA

Believing money can solve anything — even in the afterlife — Chinese people are continuing the centuries-old practice of innovating new types of “ghost money” for the deceased.

Sheng Wenqiang

When Death Stalked Construction of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway

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

SIXTH TONE ×

A spectacular 115-year-old railway bridge stands as a reminder of the 800 Chinese workers who died in its construction—around 12 for every meter laid.

The World of Chinese

Hanzi, From Print to Screen

Xue Haolin

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

Wang Yuwen, Chronicler of China’s Workers, Has Passed Away

Born into a family of miners, he focused on photographing workers in industrial sites such as mines, steel mills, and power plants.

Ding Yining

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.

The Forgotten History of Hong Kong’s Tigers

It has been several decades since a tiger was last spotted in Hong Kong. But big cats were far more common in the city — and for far longer — than most realize, a new book claims.

Faye Bradley

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?

Spirited Away: A Peek into the World of China’s Door Gods 

While the superstition isn’t widespread, the age-old tradition of hanging up door gods still endures during Lunar New Year.

A Bunny Hop Through Centuries of Chinese Art

For centuries, rabbit hair was believed to produce the finest ink brushes. Chinese literati repaid their debt to the humble creature in poetry, prose, and paintings.

Bao Wenwei

How an Aging Artist Put His Stamp on the New Year

Understanding the Chinese art world’s latest controversy is simple. Just follow the rabbits.

The All-Too Complicated History of Simplified Chinese

Often portrayed as the result of a revolutionary pro-literacy movement, many “simplified” characters have existed for hundreds of years.