Professor Ma Junya is a historian at Nanjing University. Ma’s book, The Sacrificed Land: Transformation of Huaibei’s Social Ecology, 1680–1949, first published by the National Taiwan University Press in 2010, is a seminal study of the socioeconomic history of the Huaibei region, which covers the area north of the Huai River, including northern Jiangsu, northern … more
The following translation is an excerpt from an episode of the popular Chinese-language podcast, StoryFM 故事FM. With a subscriber base of over two million, the podcast, hosted by Kou Aizhe 寇爱哲, is celebrated for inviting Chinese people from different regions and backgrounds to tell their own story, in their own voice. The editors Kou Aizhe: … more
The following translation is based on an episode from the popular Chinese-language podcast StoryFM 故事FM. With a subscriber base of over two million, the podcast, hosted by Kou Aizhe 寇爱哲, is celebrated for inviting Chinese people from different regions and backgrounds to tell their own story, in their own voice. The editors Kou Aizhe: Late … more
In a news conference held on 15 March 2022, Shanghai city officials told reporters that ‘there’s no need to lock down the city’. Thirteen days later, on 28 March 2022 officials announced a five day lockdown of Shanghai, China’s biggest financial hub. Many of the city’s residents prepared a week or two weeks’ worth of groceries and … more
In a news conference held on 15 March 2022, Shanghai city officials told reporters that ‘there’s no need to lock down the city’. Thirteen days later, on 28 March 2022 officials announced a five day lockdown of Shanghai, China’s biggest financial hub. Many of the city’s residents prepared a week or two weeks’ worth of … more
When we talk about the landmark event of the COVID-19 era in China, the name Li Wenliang 李文亮 comes to mind for many. The death of this ‘whistle-blower’ is seen as the trigger for the first wave of an internet rebellion in China against the government’s failed handling of the initial phase of the epidemic. … more
‘🌈,’ I message my friend, who is an LGBTQI+ activist in China, on WeChat. ‘I’ll be there in a minute!’, she answers to let me know that she is online and available to connect to a VPN and talk to me via an encrypted platform. A clever code of rainbows and secret words that … more
