translation

The ‘Santi’ Aren’t Real

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

VOICES & OPINION

Netflix’s “3 Body Problem” translated Liu Cixin’s epic to the small screen — with one notable exception.

Emily Xueni Jin

A Father Opens Up About His Master Translator Son’s Mental Disorder

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 viral letter praises his son’s talent to translate in multiple languages and his struggles of living with bipolar disorder.

Wu Peiyue

The Unbearable Likeness of Being: The Story of ‘Little Jack Ma’

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

Fan Xiaoqin became an instant online child star for looking like Jack Ma. Now, that fame has faded and so has the wealth it once promised. What’s left is an innocence lost and a childhood compromised.

Ming Que

Can Delivery Drivers Break Their Silence?

The founder of the Drivers’ Alliance mutual aid network discusses the challenges of life on the road.

Xiong Yan

The Kuaishou Poet

Han Shimei has lived an isolated life full of disappointment, but has found new purpose writing poetry on a video-sharing app.

Li Yiming

Inches From Heaven, Splattered in Blood 

In the second of a two-part series on the top secret Karakoram Highway, a former nurse shares her experiences treating the soldiers tasked with this monumental project.

Zhang Jingdu

Sitting Atop the World, Sketching the Faces of the Dead

The author, a former soldier, reflects on his experiences helping build the top secret Karakoram Highway between China and Pakistan in the late 1970s.

Tian Niansheng

The Man Shepherding China’s Best Zoo Through Its Worst Year

Balancing animals’ dignity and visitors’ entertainment was already a tall order, and then the pandemic hit.

Su Jing

Xing Yifan

When Your Manager Is Inhuman

In Chinese workplaces, decisions are increasingly made by artificial intelligence-powered software.

Liu Chang

How a Woman’s Can’t-Stand-It-Anymore Road Trip Inspired China

Tired of her abusive husband, 56-year-old Su Min took the car and left. Her journey made her an icon for China’s unhappy housewives.

Yin Shenglin

A Woman Called ‘Hey’

Thirty-five years ago, a Bouyei ethnic minority member was trafficked across China to a faraway village where nobody spoke her language. This year, she miraculously found her way home.

Zhang Yue

Amid Price War and Unpaid Wages, Couriers Strike and Strive

As China’s yearly Nov. 11 e-commerce bonanza nears, cutthroat competition for market share has crushed the incomes of delivery drivers.

Zhao Yiwei

Bad COVID Tests, Troubling Chest Scans, and the Doctor Who Spoke Out

By pushing for coronavirus diagnoses based on CT scans of patients’ lungs, Zhang Xiaochun, at great risk, helped people get the care they needed.

Wang Yiwei

Tang Peilan

In Datong, a Crumbling Legacy of China’s Most Extreme Urban Makeover

A decade on, the grandiose plan to restore the dusty coal town to its former glory has officially been called into question.

Su Jiede

Empty Graves, Fake Records, Graft: The Dead Tell Tales in Rural China

Police are probing a racket in Shandong in which local officials dug up bodies and burned them to obtain cremation certificates for families who’d buried their loved ones in secret.