Leslie T. Chang writes of a woman migrant worker: “She was ignored by the government, living at the margins — in China, that’s often the best place to be.”

The 1,400-year-old Grand Canal is a monumental project that bound north and south China together. It’s still in use today.

by Ian Johnson with photos by Michael Yamashita

The newspaper Southern Weekend, based in Guangdong Province, for years published exposés on corruption and malfeasance, becoming one of China’s most popular news outlets. Shrewdly, it focused its muckraking on other provinces, with the result that local censors often cut it slack.

Author Yu Hua on the surprising ins-and-outs of film, book publishing and news in China — and what that all has to do with food safety.

chowleen:

A rare scholarly bright spot amidst a brutal week of news: today was the official launch of the Digital Public Library of America:

(From the NOBLE Digital Heritage collection, hat tip Rebecca Nedostop)

It is a treasure-trove of goodies, including this 1879 Boston studio portrait of Hong Yen Chang (aka Henry Chang or 張康仁), who was one of the first “overseas students” 留學生 in the United States.

Hengdian World Studios, in China, is the largest movie lot ever built. Some of China’s most iconic buildings have been erected on Hengdian’s eight thousand acres, giving the place the ersatz-historical feel of Colonial Williamsburg. On average, there are twenty movies or television dramas being filmed at Hengdian simultaneously.