A spate of “revenge against society” attacks that have left dozens dead and more injured over the last week-and-a-half have left many in China grasping for an explanation: what is driving these “Xianzhong” rampages? The short...
A murderous rampage in Zhuhai, Guangdong that left 35 dead and scores wounded was met with a now all-too-familiar refrain on the Chinese internet: “Xianzhong” is back. Zhang Xianzhong (张献忠, Zhāng Xiànzhōng), a Ming-era peasant...
When the result of a sporting match becomes a foregone conclusion and lesser players are subbed in to run out the clock, announcers often term it “garbage time.” The latest term to sweep the Chinese internet holds that nations,...
The following themes, and the six covered in part two, are not the “most censored” words of 2023 but rather a retrospective of topics that the Party-state deemed unfit for Chinese eyes, selected by our Chinese team. While some...
Halloween celebrations in Shanghai doubled as an outlet for mild political “gags,” spooking censors and delighting audiences online. Photographs of party-goers dressed as Winnie the Pooh, livestreamer Li Jiaqi, Lu Xun, “big...
Censors deleted an essay suggesting that Xi Jinping was responsible for the youth unemployment crisis that has given birth to the viral “Kong Yiji literature” genre. The “Kong Yiji” meme is a reference to a 1918 Lu Xun story of...
Every movement needs its anthem. In the now-censored musical parody “Sunny Side Kong Yiji,” the emergent “Kong Yiji literature” wave seems to have found one of its own. “Kong Yiji literature” is a genre of self-deprecating...
“Kong Yiji literature” emerged as a self-deprecating meme among young Chinese netizens who joke that their academic credentials have made them “unemployable,” too overeducated or overqualified for the jobs currently available....
Two years and eight months after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the “Wailing Wall” that emerged in the comments under his last Weibo post continues to serve as a repository for the hopes, dreams, worries,...
Over two years after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the comments section under his last Weibo post, which has become known as “China’s Wailing Wall,” continues to serve as a repository for the hopes,...
Several of China’s largest social media companies including Weibo, Douyin, Toutiao, Zhihu, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu have announced that they will display users’ IP addresses. The measure, which will affect the majority of...
While the ongoing lockdown of Xi’an has thrust millions of people into health and food insecurity, online public outrage must contend with state media’s heart-warming stories of “noodles helping noodles.” Even Jia Pingwa, the...
At a December 3 English press conference in Beijing, in reply to an anonymous reporter’s question on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments on the national security threat posed by Chinese tech firms, Foreign...
A novella published more than 90 years ago critiquing the social rot of late imperial China has...
The Word of the Week comes from the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by...
After he was denied re-entry to China eight times, Feng Zhenghu lived in Tokyo’s Narita Airport...
As Chinese authorities mount a sustained campaign against Western influence in higher education,...
The following censored weibo, which show netizens digging into China’s deep literary and...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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