Culture Matters

Jonathan Mirsky reviews Such is This World @sars.come by Hu Fayun

Wrapped around a short novel, this daring analysis of what is wrong with China today has a checkered history. Appearing first in 2005 on a Chinese website that was shut down one week later, the book, which many readers liked, went through increasingly abridged print editions until it was de facto banned. More »

Ming Xia reviews The Little Red Guard by Wenguang Huang

As I was reading Wenguang Huang’s The Little Red Guard, I became increasingly disconcerted. I asked myself: Have I plagiarized Huang’s life? Or, is Huang’s family memoir in fact a novel with my family’s history blended into it? More »

Gao Wenqian: A Look Back at the Opening of China’s Doors:On Watching “Assignment: China—the Week that Changed the World”

Not long ago, I watched Mike Chinoy's historical documentary film "Assignment: China—The Week That Changed the World," and it brought back a lot of thoughts and feelings. The many precious scenes and familiar historical figures in the film took me back to that unforgettable history. It was at that moment that China opened its doors and entered the world, beginning on a journey that has continued to this day. More »

Liao Yiwu: Writing for the Freedom of Others

Standing here in this moment and receiving this high praise from the hands of the respected Madam Kapuscinski, I feel honored, but ill at ease.I worry because one of the men I write about in my book, a poet named Li Bifeng (李必丰), is in prison in China. More »