arts

Tidy Profit: Camera Captures the Cleaners Changing Lives

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

SIXTH TONE ×

A retired researcher’s photoshoots with domestic workers across China are helping bust stereotypical narratives of hardship and low status.

Jiemian News

What Does Climate Justice Look Like in a Language Without Sound?

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

Blending sign language, digital art, and public space, Night Bloom reimagines who gets seen — and heard — in climate conversations.

Fan Yiying

Body as Theater: A Living Art Experiment Comes to Shanghai

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

MULTIMEDIA

Wu Huiyuan 

Lü Xiao

Lady White Snake Dances Back Onto China’s Stage

A new, explicitly feminist take on an ancient myth gets another chance to connect with Chinese audiences.

Jiang Xinyi

Backstage With a Cantonese Opera Troupe

Spring in Guangdong means one thing: opera.

Of Gourds and Gods: The Art of an Ancient Chinese Board Game

Once a traditional Spring Festival pastime, this 2,000-year-old game integrates elements of fantasy and imperial culture.

Sheng Wenqiang

Rhythm of Life: The 93-Year-Old Chinatown Queen Who Couldn't Stop Dancing

The director of “Chinatown Cha-Cha,” a documentary about a troupe of elderly Asian American dancers, shares her insights into the life of its star, Coby Yee.

The Paper

Writing on the Wall: The Bold, Blocky Print That Scripted Socialism

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

VOICES & OPINION

Spread via handbooks and murals, the blocky, easily legible ‘meishuzi’ characters of the 1950s and ’60s gave Chinese socialism its visual language.

Liu Yuli

Copy Right: The Painstaking Method and Magic of Mastering a Replica

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

Across the country, museums are commissioning recreations of ancient artifacts. But beyond simple replicas, these efforts aim to revive the techniques and craftsmanship that shaped China’s cultural legacy.

Wu Haiyun

Patching the Sky: An Artist Finds Harmony in Torn Cloth

Contemporary artist Yin Xiuzhen urges viewers to “break through their shackles” with her solo show in Shanghai.

Ding Yining

The Poet Changing China’s View of Disability — Through Dance

Yu Xiuhua became a sensation with her raunchy poetry that redefined Chinese perceptions of disability. Now, she’s taking her art a step further.

In China, a Debate Over What Makes Calligraphy ‘Good’

Tian Yingzhang may have been contemporary China’s best-known calligrapher. But was he any good?

Wang Keda

A Forgotten Book Gets a Fresh Look

Henri Doré spent his life collecting examples of Chinese folk art. Written off by many of his contemporaries, that collection has become an important window into the country’s past.

Zhang Xiaoyi

Pointing Fingers: Exhibition Zooms In on Student Stress

A young photographer has focused her lens on the “writer’s callus” to reflect the realities of life for Chinese school students.

White Night Workshop

Amid Mixed Reviews, China’s Box Office Tops 1 Billion Yuan

With nearly 10 films in theaters, China’s National Day holiday box office is off to a strong start but experts question long term prospects.

He Qitong

Journey of Ink: How Chinese Art Built a French Museum

The director of the Musée Cernuschi shares the story behind its Shanghai exhibition of Chinese paintings — and the man at the heart of the collection.

Nostalgia in the City: Shanghai in the Booming ’90s 

Shanghai in the 1990s is the subject of much nostalgic yearning. A new photography exhibition transports viewers back to this consequential period of the city’s — and country’s — history.

Wu Dong

The General’s Tomb

What can a 3,000-year-old grave tell us about life during the Shang Dynasty?

Sixth Tone

Moonlight Legends: The Rabbits at the Center of Mid-Autumn Festival

Since ancient times, paper decorations depicting the moon-walking Jade Rabbit, as well as figurines of the Rabbit God, have been key components of this traditional Chinese holiday.

In Shanghai’s Prisons, Inmates Find Solace and Skill in Textile Art

In Shanghai’s Nanhui Prison, an unusual tapestry embroidery program offers inmates new skills, improves mental health, and provides a path to rehabilitation.