On Being Queer and Underclass: Mu Cao and His Poetry

The Prince Claus Fund is a Netherlands-based independent organisation dedicated to the advancement of culture and development, particularly in places where culture is under pressure. Every two years, it gives out six Impact Awards to outstanding cultural practitioners and artists worldwide. One of the 2024 laureates was Chinese poet and fiction writer Mu Cao (墓草), […]

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News Media and the Feminist Movement in China: A Brief History

This essay presents a historical analysis of the evolving relationship between Chinese news media and the feminist movement over the past three decades. It investigates how Chinese feminists have strategically utilised media platforms to advance their causes and examines the influence of media system transformations on the paradigms of feminist activism. The article argues that young women, empowered and inspired by feminist activism, have emerged as a critical force in sustaining the resilience of journalism.

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Gender and Disability in China: The Rise of Female-Led Disabled Persons’ Organisations

In recent years, thanks to the popularity of digital platforms, an increasing number of female-led disabled persons’ organisations (DPOs) focusing on disability inclusion has emerged in mainland China. This growth marks a welcome change from the traditional male dominance of such organisations. While multiple definitions of DPOs exist, in this essay, we view DPOs as […]

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Global China and African Journalistic Agency: A Relational Perspective

Amid Europe’s decoupling and de-risking strategies, escalating tensions with the United States, and competition with India for leadership in the Global South, China has intensified its efforts to strengthen relations with the developing world, particularly with Africa. Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China’s ambitions in Africa are not only to become a dominant financial power, but […]

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Quality Journalism in China Is Not Dead; It’s Just More Dispersed Than Ever

This essay maps the evolving landscape of quality journalism in China, exploring where reliable information thrives under increasing restrictions. Analysing the roles of state-owned institutional media alongside diverse, independent voices—including professional content creators, citizen journalists, and those working transnationally—it demonstrates how these actors operate both within and beyond established media structures. The essay also discusses the challenges posed by platform dominance.

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Legitimacy on Air: How Chinese Local Television News Performs Governance

In authoritarian systems, the media is often seen as a tool of propaganda, designed to suppress dissent and reinforce state control. While this perception captures a significant aspect of such regimes, it oversimplifies the dynamic ways in which the media functions in these contexts. In China, local television news, particularly the genre known as minsheng […]

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Blogging on the ‘Little Red Book’

Freedom and Unfreedom for Mum Bloggers in Today’s China

About 20 minutes into our conversation, Jiao paused as though gathering her thoughts. ‘Actually, the timing of this interview is coincidental,’ she said, ‘I’m planning to resign this week and blog full-time.’ She quickly added: ‘But this is my choice. Compared with my current job, I have more freedom as a mum blogger on Xiaohongshu.’ […]

After Art: Precarity and Expulsion in Songzhuang

Wang Chunchen’s 2010 monograph on the changing role of art in Chinese society opens and ends with accounts of the forced resettlement of artists and the sudden demolition of their studios in Beijing’s Chaoyang District between December 2009 and February 2010. In what this prominent art critic and curator viewed as the continuation of a […]

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Constructing a De-Ethnicised Inner Mongolia

‘Northern frontier culture’ (北疆文化, umrat khiliin soyol) has recently become a trendy term in propaganda texts and academic publications in and about Inner Mongolia. Numerous activities, including cultural festivals, archaeological discoveries, intangible heritage exhibitions, and academic conferences, are organised under the banner of or carry the tag ‘northern frontier culture’. For instance, the newspaper Inner […]

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One and All: A Conversation with Pang Laikwan

Pang Laikwan’s One and All: The Logic of Chinese Sovereignty (Stanford University Press, 2024) is a critical exploration of the Chinese concepts and structures of sovereignty in imperial, republican, socialist, and post-socialist periods. The book traces how sovereignty branches out into articulations of popular, territorial, and economic sovereignty. With this genealogy in mind, Pang shows […]

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