We’re delighted to have reached two years since we launched the China Channel on September 25th – Lu Xun’s birthday, in celebration of his iconoclastic spirit – in 2017. Since then, we’ve published 435 stories, bringing you essays, translations, photography and fiction on Chinese society, culture, history, politics and more. To celebrate that and look forward to the future, we’ve collected a dozen of our best or most read posts from last year, listed below.
We’re still working on securing funding for the next calendar year, and give thanks to everyone who is supporting our translations on Patreon. (And if there are any generous souls who want to support at a higher level, do feel free to reach out directly). In the meantime, we’re committed to bringing you two to three quality posts each week, filling in the white spaces of China coverage. Do follow us on email or social media to keep up to date. Thanks for reading. – The Editors
Four Fates in a Changing China
An original essay by Yu Hua, China’s preeminent novelist – trans. Allan H. Barr
Reform and Opening: China’s Turning Point
Crossing the river by feeling for the stones – Klaus Mühlhahn
The Smog Society
New science fiction by Chen Qiufan – trans. Carmen Yiling Yan & Ken Liu
Damming the Upper Mekong
How dams in southwest China are displacing upland peoples – Brian Eyler
Redeeming Empress Gi
The Korean woman who once ruled China – Joan MacDonald
Illiberal China
Josh Freedman reviews two new studies of Chinese political models
How Coca-Cola Came to China
The sugar trap of market normalization – Ramsey Fahs
The Prince and the Rebel
A thwarted assassination that almost changed the course of Chinese history – Jeremiah Jenne
(from our ‘Hidden History’ column)
Caught Between Two Countries
Northeastern China’s ethnic Korean minority – Eduardo Baptista
(from our ‘Borderlands’ column)
Who Are the Peranakan Chinese?
Deep roots and many routes – Rebecca Choong Wilkins
(from our ‘Diaspora’ column)
The Road to Bangdong
How transportation networks are changing lives in rural Yunnan – Matthew Chitwood
(from our ‘Bangdong’ column)
Julia Lovell: Translating China’s Past
Jonathan Chatwin talks to the award-winning historian and translator
(from our ‘China Conversations’ column)
