One or two readings on China per day, chosen by Angilee Shah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, editors of Chinese Characters
UC Press | Amazon
Events
Subscribe by Email
Meet the Contributors
Reactions to the Book
Contributors on Twitter
Esquire Theme by Matthew Buchanan
Social icons by Tim van Damme
14
Apr
11
Jan
The work of the American press in China has become so contentious, and so central to our understanding of China’s political picture, that it’s worth stepping back, for a moment, to put a remarkable year in perspective: in the span of twelve months, foreign news organizations including the Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News have ratcheted up their scrutiny of China’s politicians to a level of forensic detail that we have rarely, if ever, seen in foreign correspondence.
22
Oct
By Evan Osnos for The New Yorker. See also Michael Todd’s analysis and links to more about the Wenzhou crash in Pacific Standard.
29
Aug
At The Bookworm bookstore: Though China is currently in the global spotlight, few outside its borders have a feel for the tremendous diversity of the lives being led inside the country. Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land is a collection of compelling stories challenges oversimplified views of China by shifting the focus away from the question of China’s place in the global order and zeroing in on what is happening on the ground. The collection includes profiles of people who defy stereotype - an artist who copies classical paintings for export to tourist markets, Xi’an migrant workers who make a living recycling trash in the city dumps, a Taoist mystic, an entrepreneur hoping to strike it rich in the rental car business, an old woman about to lose her home in Beijing, and a crusading legal scholar – written by some of the most talented and respected journalists and scholars writing about China today. Join us to celebrate the publication of this new collection and hear from contributors Ian Johnson (Wild Grass), Christina Larson (Foreign Policy), Evan Osnos (The New Yorker) and Ananth Krishnan (The Hindu) on the profiles they contributed.
20/30rmb, 7:30pm
Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road,
Chaoyang District, Beijing
100027, P.R China
16
Aug
Evan Osnos explains the politics of a Chinese orgy for the New Yorker
04
Aug
On one hand, you have the cream of the crop—contemporary graphics effortlessly combined with just enough Chinese motifs to differentiate them from the West. But at the same time, we have countless adverts that are flamboyant, sickly sweet, and just hyperbolic all around, often with jarring color combinations and tragic abuse of effect filters.
31
Jul
I searched all over the Internet, and I couldn’t find a single portrait of a Chinese construction worker from the 2008 Olympics. In fact, many of them were kicked out of Beijing because they didn’t have a residency permit!
20
Jul
Going from there to here is a really amazing experience. I don’t think I would have quite the same understanding of China if I hadn’t seen people at their lowest moments and at their highest moments, which is what Iraq showed me.
11
Jul
25
Jun
Great episode, Americans in China, on This American Life. Act One is by Chinese Characters contributer Evan Osnos:
ACT ONE. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GO AND MAKE THINGS SO COMPLICATED?
There are about seventy thousand Americans living in mainland China today, according to the Chinese and US governments. A lot of the Americans in China only stay for a few years, but then there are others — American ex-pats who’ve lived in China for a decade or more with no foreseeable plans to come home. Who are they? And how Chinese do they become? Evan Osnos has this story, which starts with an ex-pat named Kaiser Kuo. Evan is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes the column Letter from China.
