cai-yineng

A Key Plank of China’s Planned Economy Is Making a Comeback. Why?

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

Q & A

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.

Did ‘God Songs’ Kill China’s God of Rock?

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

VOICES & OPINION

Quick, catchy, and inane, short video-optimized “god songs” have taken over Chinese music. Does anyone still have the patience for an old-school album?

Filling in the Blank Spaces of China’s Constitution

The framers of China’s constitution didn’t specify a division of powers between central and local governments — a choice whose ramifications are still being felt today.

Recovering the Forgotten History of China’s Constitution

For legal scholar Tian Lei, the past is preamble.

When the Internet Knows Where You Live

China’s major social media platforms are starting to include users’ geographic locations in their posts. They claim the feature is meant to deter imposters, but will it work?

How the Lockdown Is Remaking Shanghai Neighborhoods

Sociologist Sun Zhe has studied Shanghai community organizations for over a decade. He believes the ramifications of the current lockdown will be felt far into the future.

For Artist Long Pan, the Mushroom Is the Message

From rafts to migrant workers, as far as Long Pan is concerned, all art is fungi-ble.

Want a Divorce? In China, Try, Try Again

In 2004, while conducting fieldwork in Guangdong, legal scholar He Xin learned that that Chinese judges had an unofficial policy of always rejecting a person’s first divorce petition. He spent the next decade trying to figure out why.

Why This Year’s ‘Double Eleven’ Felt Different

For a decade, the shopping festival was China’s most unbridled celebration of consumerist excess. Now the shine seems to be wearing off.

The ‘Minor’ Events That Had a Major Impact on Sino-American History

Professor Wang Yuanchong on the oft-overlooked stories that defined the early Sino-American relationship.

Song Ta Scandal Puts Art World's Sexism on Full Display

The recent exhibition and subsequent removal of an artwork where women were rated by their looks hints at the continued influence of China’s ‘bad boy’ generation of artists.

Moral Arbiters: Should China’s Judges Uphold More Than Just the Law?

China encourages its judges to take moral considerations into account in their rulings. What happens when those morals change?

Ready or Not, Here Come China’s Pop Culture Intellectuals

Armed with plenty of jokes, Chinese intellectuals are hitting the reality show circuit. Can they win over mass audiences?

What David Graeber Could Have Meant to China

The “anarchist anthropologist” may never have been a household name in the country, but his work offers real insight into the problems faced by many Chinese.

On China’s ‘Color Codes’ and Life After COVID-19

Countries have turned to new technologies to help track citizens’ movements and contain outbreaks. Will they be able to give them up?