Translations: As Tributes Pour In, Chengdu’s You Xing Bookstore Gets a Reprieve From Feared Closure
Following more than a week of speculation that Chengdu’s You Xing Bookstore (有杏书店, Yǒu Xìng...
writers
Profit-Seeking Police Crack Down on “Danmei” Erotic Fiction Writers
Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of writers of Boys’ Love (BL), or danmei, a genre of online homoerotic fiction featuring male protagonists, and typically created by and for women. This latest crackdown appears driven by...
Extreme Nationalists Accuse Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, Bottled Water Company Nongfu Spring of Being Insufficiently Patriotic
In recent weeks, both the Nobel prize-winning novelist Mo Yan and the Chinese bottled water company Nongfu Spring have come under fire from extreme Chinese nationalists, who have accused them of being insufficiently patriotic....
Censored Essay: Peter Hessler Sells His Car
Acclaimed writer Peter Hessler is selling his car in Chengdu, after leaving China in 2021 when his teaching contract was abruptly terminated. Online, the sale of his Honda CRV has spurred a series of reflections on Hessler’s...
Interview: Tsering Yangzom Lama on Colonialism, Exile, and the Importance of Listening to Tibetans’ Stories
Starting in March 2008, Tibetans across the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan took to the streets to call for religious freedom and an end to oppressive political and social controls and...
Comedian Pulls Back Curtain On Censorship Process After Army Joke Incident
The (talk) show is over. Comedian Li Haoshi, who made a joke involving the People’s Liberation Army last weekend, has been detained by Beijing police according to a report from BBC’s Chinese news service. As of publication, no...
Translation: Wei Zhou Explains, “Why Did My Comment Disappear?”
Popular online writer Shen Maohua, who writes under the pen name Wei Zhou, is known for his trenchant and often humorous essays, lively social media comments sections, and occasional brushes with platform censors. In this...
Translation: A Literary Master Offers Anodyne Comfort to Xi’an
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...
Translation: Backlash to Wuhan Diary “Reveals a Serious Problem Society Must Correct”
Born, raised, and based in Wuhan, writer Fang Fang began her first hand chronicles of life in the original epicenter of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on January 25—two days after authorities launched an unprecedented lockdown in...
Translation: “As Long as We Survive,” by Fang Fang
The COVID-19 coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, Hubei late last year. After belated government acknowledgment of a public health crisis, authorities began an ongoing lockdown of Wuhan in January as the city and country at large...
Person of the Week: Murong Xuecun
CDT is expanding its wiki beyond the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon to include short...
Writer Yang Tongyan Dies While on Medical Parole
Democracy activist and writer Yang Tongyan, also known by the pen-name Yang Tianshui, died at age...
Translation: “Tea-drinking Diary” by Li Xuewen
Last week, according to the U.S. government-backed Radio Free Asia, domestic security officers in...
Han Han: The Problem With Me
Shanghai-born blogger, author, director, singer, restaurateur, and race car driver Han Han...
China Bars Wang Lixiong From Traveling to Japan
Radio Free Asia reports that writer, historian, and frequent critic of China’s ethnic...
Publishers Under Pressure as Censors Reach for Red Pen
While Xi Jinping has made stating his appreciation for literature—both foreign and domestic—a...
Censors and Sensibility: Writing In and On China
On the Sinica podcast, Ian Johnson joins Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn, and David Moser to discuss...
BEA 2015: If Xi Jinping Threw a Book Party
The who’s who of the U.S. publishing industry are gathering today in New York for the...
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