history

The Ups and Downs of Shanghai’s ‘Saint of Songs’

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

VOICES & OPINION

The Filipino conductor who made Shanghai dance and shaped Hong Kong’s Cantopop sound.

Cai Yiwen

Street Angels: Meet the Women Who Became China’s First Pop Stars

Originally dismissed as lightweights, the women of Shanghai’s jazz age remade both the sound and the image of modern China.

Ticket to Shanghai: How an American Trumpeter Rocked China’s Jazz Scene

Before Count Basie and Harlem fame, Buck Clayton found respect, freedom, and a glimpse of jazz without borders in Shanghai.

The Music Teacher Who Rewrote the Rules of Chinese Pop

Reviled by elites, adored by the masses, Li Jinhui turned Shanghai’s din into China’s first pop music.

The MingKwai Experiment: Typing Chinese Before Computers

Unveiled in 1947, the MingKwai typewriter was the product of a Chinese novelist’s yearslong obsession to build a machine that tackled the problem of typing Chinese decades before personal computers arrived.

Liu Yuli

Her Eye, Her Era, Her Archive: Xiao Zhuang, One of China’s First Female Photojournalists, Dies at 93

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

MULTIMEDIA

Beginning as a young army photographer, Xiao’s eye for everyday human moments led her to document the rise of a nation.

Sixth Tone

In Wuhan, A Race to Study a 3,500-Year-Old City Between Seasons

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

At Panlongcheng, archaeologists race against seasonal rains and hostile soil to recover a 3,500-year-old city that reshaped understanding of early Chinese civilization, knowing much of it may remain forever underwater.

Wu Haiyun

The Archeological Menagerie: China Uncovers 3,000-Year-Old ‘Zoo’

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

The findings shed light on an ancient system of acquiring and keeping captive a variety of wild animals, likely for use as sacrifices by ancient elites.

Jiang Xinyi

Social Media Is Fracturing Our Common Understanding of History

Historians should strive to create and safeguard historical consensus, as the internet increasingly threatens this ideal.

Meng Zhongjie

Why So Many Chinese Literati Were Capricorns

While the zodiac signs are often associated with personality and birth month, in ancient China, Capricorn came to symbolize struggle, hardship, and human resilience, appearing in writings throughout the ages.

Song  Shenmi

The 12 Zodiac Signs That Climbed Mountains and Crossed Seas to Reach Ancient China

Archaeological evidence shows that the 12 astronomical signs at one point entered China, a journey that would eventually include them in religious art and beyond.

Seeing the Tower

From city landmark to global memory, interactions and misinterpretations of the Glazed Pagoda of the Great Bao’en Temple are a unique window into the changing dynamics of when East met West.

Qiu Linwan

China’s Cliff Coffins: DNA Ties a 3,000-Year-Old Enigma to the Living

Suspending coffins on sheer cliffs is a mysterious and 3,000-year-old burial tradition. New genetic evidence shows how it may have spread in China and beyond.

A Coffee of Exile and Memory Comes Home to Hainan

Created by Hainanese migrants in Southeast Asia, the brew returned with re-migrants in the 1950s. Now, a new generation is pushing it into the future.

Coral Yang

How AI Allows Us to Talk With Ancient Chinese People

AI software has made it possible to consistently analyze thousands of historical texts, allowing scientists to carefully map how people’s viewpoints changed between centuries and across regions.

Chen Yuqi

The Hidden History of Suzhou Prints

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

Q & A

In Qing-era Suzhou, color prints were a popular and affordable art form for everyday people. As such, they have long lacked the recognition they deserve.

Zheng Haiyao

The Historian Showing How Trade Shaped China’s Ties to the World

From silk and porcelain to cotton and tea, Li Bozhong traces how centuries of exchange bound China to global markets long before modern globalization.

Looking Back at a Mascot of Future Optimism

Fifteen years ago, 73 million people visited the Shanghai Expo. Recently, the cartoon figure used to promote it has become an object of nostalgia.

Wang Zhanhei

100 Years Ago, Beijing’s Forbidden City Opened Its Doors

For centuries, the imperial palace at the heart of China’s capital was off-limits to commoners. When the Qing dynasty fell, that slowly began to change.

Xu Wanling

The Literature Professor Reframing China Narratives

Since the 1990s, Professor He Guimei has been researching constructions of China across contemporary literature. In her latest book, she challenges the way narratives frame “Chineseness” itself.