This has been cross-posted from the New York Times with permission. Word Crimes from Jonah Kessel on Vimeo. “The worst effect of the censorship is the psychological impact on writers,” Murong said. “When I was working on my first book, I didn’t...
CATEGORY: China

Who is Hu Xijin? Behind the scenes at “China’s Fox News”
One of the most curious newspapers to come out of China in recent years is the English-language edition of the Global Times. Owned by the People’s Daily group, it is one of only two national papers published in English in mainland China, alongside...

O-pen Magazine forced to shut by the Chinese goverment
O-pen Magazine was set up in March 2011 by Annie Baby, a popular novelist who got her start on the internet. On 1 November she announced on her Sina microblog that O-pen had been forced to stop publishing. In China, magazines need a national...
Han Han: when a culture castrates itself
Cross posted with thanks to the Chinese Media Project for the translation I haven’t written anything since [my July post] “Nation Derailed.” In point of fact, I’m not very diligent about my writing, and each time I do finish writing something and...
Free Chen Guangcheng movement grows despite violence
Chinese netizens, writers and media figures have rallied to the cause of blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng in recent weeks, facing risks of detention and harassment and beatings. Chinese blogger Zeng Jinyan describes the situation Efforts to...

Beijing film festival not banned but forced to falter
Independent film festivals around the world are usually bustling affairs. This was not so in the case of the Sixth Beijing Independent Film Festival. The week-long event, scheduled to start last weekend, dampened down all its advertising for fear...
Ai Weiwei: “maybe being powerful means to be fragile”
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been named the most powerful person in the art world in ArtReview magazine's Power 100 poll, which rates the contemporary art world's most influential figures. In an interview with BBC World Service's Global News, Ai...
Conspiracy theories flourish after China cancels opera
This Thursday Hong Kong will host the world premiere of Dr. Sun Yat-sen after China abruptly cancelled the opera’s original world premiere at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts. The opera, commissioned by Opera Hong Kong and the Hong...
“Detained” reporter refutes New York Times article
We've been alerted to a debate that has arisen regarding our post on Monday 26 September, in which we noted that the New York Times had reported that a journalist investigating a sex slavery scandal in China's Henan province had been "detained" and...
Reporter detained for article on sex slavery
It was revealed last week that a Chinese man who imprisoned six women as sex slaves in a self-dug cellar was arrested in Luoyang city, Henan province. 34-year-old Li Hao, a civil servant who has since been sacked and stripped of his party...