Netizen Voices: As Sino-Japanese Tensions Rise, “Tourism is Treated like a Chamberpot, a Disposable Tool”
The diplomatic crisis between China and Japan continues to intensify, following Japanese Prime...
tourism
Tour by YouTube Star IShowSpeed Hailed as Soft Power Win for China
This week, 20-year-old American influencer Darren Watkins Jr., better known as IShowSpeed, concluded a multi-week, high-profile tour of China. With nearly 120 million online followers across all of his platforms, IShowSpeed...
Chinese Indie Filmmaker Hit With Harsh “Cross-Provincial” Fine and Equipment Confiscation
Despite troubling jurisdictional issues, the Urumqi Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau in Xinjiang has imposed a fine of 75,000 yuan (US$10,300) on Yunnan-based artist and independent filmmaker Guo Zhenming (郭珍明) for “illegal...
Words of the Week: “Breaking in to Turn on Lights” (撬锁点灯, qiàosuǒ diǎndēng)
Earlier this month, netizens were incensed over a viral video that showed firefighters and other uniformed officers breaking into a shop in Datong, Shanxi province late at night in order to turn on the lights—ostensibly, to...
Chinese Government Leverages Inbound Tourism to Boost External Propaganda
In a global public opinion climate marked by polarized views of China, one common tactic employed by the Party-state apparatus to dispel potential criticism is encouraging foreigners to come see China in person. Numerous...
Translation: “Confessions of a Collegiate ‘Zhengzhou-to-Kaifeng Night-Cyclist’”
For college students in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, it was a brief moment of freedom: a short-lived craze for cycling overnight on ride-share rental bikes to the nearby city of Kaifeng for a bit of fun, food, and...
Life and Media Under the Taliban: A View from China
The latest draconian decree issued by the Taliban on Monday was a gradual media ban on all images of living things in news coverage. Repression of the media and civil rights may be even harsher under the Taliban than under the...
As PRC Outlasts Soviet Union, Xi Jinping Warns of “Stormy Waves”
The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday, October 1. The anniversary is both political spectacle and the advent of a week-long holiday marked by decidedly apolitical leisure travel. On the eve of...
Taiwanese Drag Queen’s Victory Sparks Quiet Joy Among Fans in China
Nymphia Wind, a Taiwanese drag queen, has won the 16th season of the American reality TV competition show RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her victory has been cause for quiet celebration in China, where drag is in the ascendant despite...
Is Chasing Deadbeat Debtors “Picking Quarrels”?
Provincial prosecutors in Guizhou have set up a special investigative team to look into the case of a female entrepreneur who, along with members of her legal team, was detained and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking...
Reports on Xinjiang Detail Criminalization of Islam, Retroactive Punishment
On the sidelines of the Two Sessions this week, Xinjiang Party Secretary Ma Xingrui declared that “Islam in Xinjiang needs to be Sinicised,” adding, “this is an inevitable trend.” His statements were another sign of the CCP’s...
Reports Detail Tightening Information Flows In and Out of China
Information control and national security have long gone hand in hand for the Chinese government, especially under Xi Jinping. Last year was marked by a notable increase in government attempts to restrict information flows in...
Word of the Week: “Point at a Deer and Call It a Horse” (指鹿为马, zhǐlùwéimǎ)
Open displays of rejoicing and Schadenfreude on Chinese social media after a destructive magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck western Japan on New Year’s Day have been followed by two new (and far sillier) incidents of xenophobic or...
Online Influencers Promote Han “Colonization” in Xinjiang
European broadcasting outlet ARTE recently released a short investigative documentary titled “China: Colonization Influencers,” about influencers on Chinese social media who promote Han settlement in Xinjiang. The investigation...
Hangzhou Asian Games: Competition, Symbolism, and Heightened Security Measures
After being postponed for a year due to the 2022 COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in nearby Shanghai, the 19th Asian Games are finally taking place in China’s eastern seaboard city of Hangzhou. For the Chinese government, the...
Tourism Push and Continued Labor Coercion Mark New Phase in Xinjiang Repression
Exactly one year ago, a consortium of media outlets released the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of tens of thousands of files showing images of Uyghur detainees in Xinjiang’s concentration camps and manuals for enforcing their...
China To Open Its Borders, Marking End of Zero-COVID Isolation
China will drop quarantine requirements for international travelers starting January 8, 2023. The government also announced a host of other travel-easing measures. The changes effectively end China’s three-year period of...
Party Sets Up Special Bureau for Xinjiang
The Chinese Communist Party has established a new bureau for Xinjiang within its United Front Work...
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