race & ethnicity

race-&-ethnicity

Witches and ‘Poisonous Cats’: A Scholar’s Search for Society’s Scapegoats

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

Q & A

Wang Mingke has spent his life studying marginalized communities in China’s far west. That work has helped him better understand everything from anti-Asian hate to social media polarization.

Wu Haiyun

How a Hani Designer Is Bringing Ethnic Fusion to Chinese Fashion

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

VOICES & OPINION

Long marginalized and objectified by the fashion industry, a new generation of minority designers is experimenting with modern materials and techniques. But mainstream acceptance remains elusive.

Ma Zhen

The End of the Email-Order Bride?

Chinese women who sign up for transnational dating agencies increasingly privilege class and bearing over race and ethnicity.

Monica Liu

Chinese Women Cheer Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar Win

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 60-year-old’s achievements have led to discussion on the plight of China’s middle-aged actresses struggling to get work due to their age.

Ye Zhanhang

Learning to Cry

A student reflects on a childhood immersed in toxic masculinity.

Luc Gerard

Shanghai’s Forgotten Children

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

When a deadly famine struck China in the early 1960s, the city evacuated thousands of children to remote herding communities in Inner Mongolia. Six decades later, they’re still there.

Li Yijuan

Ni Dandan

How Chinese Students Abroad Navigate Race and Nationality

Chinese international students in the U.S. are often criticized for a lack of engagement in racial justice. But how do the students themselves view their struggle?

Qing Tingting Liu

How a Choir of Miao Farmers Became a Viral Hit

The Xiaoshuijing Miao Farmer Choir has found success online, but viral fame comes with its own risks.

Yang Yalun

Blood Brothers: The Scarred History of China’s Ethnic Russians

During the early 20th century, thousands of Russian refugees fleeing war and revolution crossed the freezing Amur River into northeast China. Today, the community is still trying to reconcile its identity — and process its collective trauma.

Fan Yiying

For Chinese Abroad, a Winter Olympics-Sized Hangover

The Games highlighted how even star athletes of Chinese descent like Eileen Gu and Nathan Chen must walk a tightrope to be accepted. What does that mean for everyone else?

Han Le

Colgate Bids Farewell to ‘Black Person’ Toothpaste in China 

The company’s local partner denied the name change had any relation to the toothpaste’s racially insensitive branding.

Jiang Yaling

A ‘Yellow Miracle’: How a Sprinter Became a Racial Icon

Originally an invention of Western pseudosciences, the idea of a 'yellow' racial identity has persisted in China like nowhere else.

Flair Donglai Shi

Where Next for the Filmmakers of the Tibetan New Wave?

Directors Lhapal Gya and Pema Tseden discuss the challenges of telling Tibetan stories.

Yuan Ye

Bodies of Work: Why Chinese Photographers Feel Pressured to Conform

Despite working in an “internationally accessible” medium, photographers from China and Asia more broadly often find themselves pigeonholed.

Chen Ronghui

Parenting in a Time of Anti-Asian Hate

The author, an expert in early childhood development, shares her struggles in talking to her own child about racism.

Xu Jing

Why Some Chinese Deny the Existence of Anti-Asian Hate

Despite a string of recent, high-profile attacks on Asians, a vocal contingent of Chinese in the U.S. continue to deny there’s a problem.

Is China Really Ready for Black Stories?

Chinese audiences don’t necessarily reject Black-themed or Black-led films out of hand, but they’re missing much of what makes them powerful.

Lin Yuhan

Chinese Film, Asian Actors and Directors Get Historic Oscar Nods

The Academy Award nominations come amid rising anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States.

Cai Xuejiao

Ding Zhen and the Myth of the True Khampa Man

The young viral video star looks nothing like the burly, red-blooded men his home region is famous for producing. But who set those standards in the first place?

Xu Jun

After Historic Touchdown, Chinese Tune In to American Football

Tencent broadcasts Arizona State game amid growing interest in Chinese-born Jackson He.