Here you can find the call for papers for the journal issues we are currently working on. The initial pitches should be no longer than 300 words and explain the key argument of your piece, what kind of sources you plan to use in it, and how you will be enriching current discussions. 

If your pitch is successful and we ask you to submit the whole article, please follow the guidelines at this link.

The Made in China Journal invites submissions for a special issue focusing on political depression, scheduled for publication in July 2026.

Political depression has emerged not only as a psychological condition but also as a culturally embedded affective response shaped by broader socio-political forces. While clinically it parallels symptoms of depression, its aetiology is explicitly tied to political events and structural disenfranchisement. It manifests as hopelessness, a loss of faith in personal agency, and a pervasive sense that hard work, education, or imagination no longer matter. It cuts across generations: older adults mourn the collapse of social ideals, while younger individuals experience rage, betrayal, and disillusionment.

Even though it has a longer history in feminist and affect theory (see, for instance, Berlant 2012 and Bradley 2020), the term gained traction in the United States during Donald Trump’s first presidency in 2016, becoming a vernacular shorthand for the emotional toll of political life under authoritarian populism. Its resonance has since extended transnationally, with notable uptake in China—particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the 2022 White Paper movement. It first circulated on psychology-focused WeChat public accounts through the translation of Robert Lusson’s 2017 HuffPost article, and was later picked up by The Paper (澎湃) for broader dissemination.

The governmentality of emotion has long been a critical concern in feminism and critiques of capitalism—especially in how positive feelings and therapeutic remedies are cultivated to serve neoliberal capitalism and hetero-patriarchy (Fisher 2009; Ahmed 2010). China is no exception to this neoliberal and patriarchal emotional governance. The flourishing of psychological practices in urban China since the 1990s acts as a volatile buffer zone for managing widespread anxiety and social discontent amid rapid social transformation and moral uncertainty (Zhang 2020).

Yet China offers a distinct case shaped by a relatively long history of contested authoritarian governance. Affective concepts such as happiness and love also function as tools of emotional regulation, deployed to legitimise authoritarian governance (Guo 2025; Wielander and Hird 2019). On the other side of the happiness regime—or perhaps as its shadow—lies the widely felt condition of political depression. Though previously unnamed, political depression has long been embedded in China’s post-socialist era. This period has been marked by major political ruptures: from the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and, more recently, the White Paper movement in response to the draconian Zero-Covid policies. At the heart of this trajectory lies the deepening of a neoliberal economy, coupled with a shrinking and contested civil society, intensifying authoritarian control, and increasingly illiberal politics—all accompanied by a waning hope for political transformation from below.

In this context, political depression in China does not simply mirror the global far-right turn but emerges as a long-standing condition rooted in specific historical traumas and the evolving dynamics of authoritarian rule. Hence, understanding political depression and the ways it is navigated in China may offer valuable insights for other parts of the world—especially those grappling with democratic erosion, rising authoritarian populism, or widespread affective disengagement from formal politics.

We seek to understand political depression and the ways it is navigated and negotiated in China through contributions that explore (but are not limited to) the following areas:

• Forms of resistance and responses to political depression, including diverse strategies for sustaining activism—such as feminism, the ‘lying flat’ movement, the ethos of the ‘nearby’ (Xiang 2021), community building, and artistic practices
• The rise and interplay of far-right and far-left ideologies
• The roles of the market and media in shaping affective/emotional resistance/governance
• The formation, transformation, and dissolution of ideological or affective communities
• The psychological and pseudo-psychological practices in everyday life

Submission Details: Pitches of up to 300 words should be submitted by 10 August 2025. Full manuscripts, upon acceptance, will be due by 1 December 2025. Please send your abstracts and inquiries to editors[at]madeinchinajournal[dot]com.

The Made in China Journal invites submissions for a special issue focusing on gender and sexuality in contemporary China, scheduled for publication in December 2025. This issue aims to explore how gender is constructed, embodied, performed, and contested in contemporary China, and explore the proliferation of  sexual desires in relation to social and political transformations.   

We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Conceptual  Inquiry: How do queer,  feminist, and trans theories largely developed in Western contexts resonate with people’s lived desires and practices in China? 
• Historical Perspectives: Analyses of gender roles and sexual norms throughout China’s history.
• Contemporary Dynamics: Studies on modern gender relations, LGBTQ+ movements, and the influence of globalisation and digital media on sexual identities and expressions.
• Policy and Legal Frameworks: Examinations of the evolution of laws affecting gender equality and sexual rights, and their societal implications.
• Intersectionality: Research highlighting how gender and sexuality intersect with ethnicity, class, religion, and other social categories within the Chinese context.
• Comparative Analyses: Insights comparing China's gender and sexuality issues with those in other cultural or national settings, offering a broader understanding of global patterns and unique trajectories.
• Aesthetics: Artistic representations of queer cultures in China.

Submission Details: Pitches of up to 300 words should be submitted by 4 May 2025. Full manuscripts, upon acceptance, will be due by 7 September 2025. Please send your abstracts and inquiries to editors[at]madeinchinajournal[dot]com .