When Heteropatriarchy Turns You On

Masculinity, Masochism, and the Erotics of Normativity

A tenacious heteropatriarchal logic of gender normativity continues to script the behaviour of Chinese gay men. It was a decade ago when Tiantian Zheng (2015) made the anthropological observation that the kind of gay sex that Chinese homosexuals were having was, essentially, not about sex. The bottoms she interviewed confessed to a lack of sexual […]

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Rectifying Names, Erasing Mongols

The Unmaking of Mongolian Education in China

On a clear October morning in 2025, two massive cranes rolled up to a middle school in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Workers prised off the large Chinese and Mongolian signs running along the roofline of the main teaching building and replaced them with a new sign that erased the Mongolian name from the […]

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Forever Hong Kong

A Conversation with Ching Kwan Lee

Six years after the spectacular ‘Be Water’ rebellion that rippled across national borders, Forever Hong Kong asks: What historical conditions and precedents precipitated the citywide revolt in 2019? How can we understand Hongkongers’ political resistance as acts of decolonial defiance? Weaving cogent historical and political-economy analyses of Hong Kong’s colonial history with rich ethnographic data […]

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Gendered Organisation of Platform Food Delivery Work in China

‘Our motto is —’, the supervisor chanted. ‘Meituan Delivery, punctual and helpful [美团配送, 准时好用]!’, dozens of drivers responded in unison. At 9.30 am, drivers assembled for a roll call under a bridge near a residential complex. The supervisor reminded them to clean their delivery boxes, reiterated the health and safety guidelines, and reported the rate […]

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Excavating a History Already Found

Archaeology and the Politics of the Past in the People’s Republic of China

A carved stone discovered in Qinghai Province in 2020 drew wide attention in June 2025 when a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences proposed that it was an inscription from the reign of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang (r. 221–210 BCE), a claim that seemed to extend Qin influence to the Tibetan Plateau. […]

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Monroe Doctrine Redux

New Americanism and the Echoes of Empire in China and Japan

The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation—one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet […]

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Queer Chimerica

A Conversation with Shana Ye

Blending archival work, ethnography, and cultural analysis with memoir, graphic art, and science fiction, Shana Ye’s Queer Chimerica: A Speculative Auto/Ethnography of the Cool Child (University of Michigan Press, 2024) unpacks the ways in which the transnational circulation of queer culture, politics, and institutions are structured through the antagonist interdependence of China and the United […]

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What Is the Purpose of ‘China-Watching’ in the United States Today?

The executive ignored widespread dissent to force through an illiberal agenda. Violent confrontations between protesters and police brought forth increased repression. In less than a year, new policies all but outlawed any form of substantive criticism of the government. On the surface, life appears normal, as journalists, academics, researchers, and others continue to show up […]

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The Distance Between Us

A week after the devastating fire that claimed at least 159 lives in Hong Kong on 26 November, people were still queuing daily for hours until after midnight to join the mourning. As flowers, gifts, and Lennon Wall–style post-it notes evolved into a landscape, residents also expressed anger and requested independent investigations into the tragedy. […]

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The Fire of the Century

A Glimpse into Three Days and Nights of Mutual Aid Spontaneously Organised by Hong Kongers

Editors’ introduction: The following piece, written by Lee Wai Kwan and translated by Yiwen Liu, originally appeared in Initium Media on 28 November 2025. In republishing it here in the Made in China Journal with the permission of Initium, we hope to connect voices of the Hong Kong community to wider audiences who might benefit […]

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