Rap propaganda is the latest manifestation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s campaign to consolidate power using soft culture tropes to massage his image with audiences in China. Early in 2016, an official rap cartoon was circulated extolling the virtues of…
Center Director, Penelope Prime, talked with former CNN correspondent, Mike Chinoy, via Skype on April 15, 2016, about his recent project on the process of understanding China through the media. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. PP:…
The history of Christianity in China is a remarkable tale of the encounters between two very different civilizations and of how a foreign religion survived, revitalized, and became a vibrant torrent in China today. The main focus of this essay…
The Fall of Chinese Courtyard Houses China’s rapid economic growth coupled with an unprecedented level of real estate development have resulted in an almost wholesale destruction of traditional siheyuan (四合院) courtyard houses since the 1990s. For example, until 1949, Beijing…
Macau, first established in 1557 and the oldest former European colony in East Asia, is again facing challenges to its recently established status as the world’s largest gambling center. Enormous revenues derived from gaming activity – a key driver of…
China has amazed the world once again, not with economic growth, but with the closing of its education gap. There has been tremendous transformation in Chinese education over the past three decades. With the elimination of school fees for the…
Let me say it right here: The China-US Partnership to Prevent Spina Bifida – The Evolution of a Landmark Epidemiological Study, by Deborah Kowal, is a monumental work. And here is why. The book is a vivid account of a…
Introduction In 2008 and 2009 if I asked a Beijing taxi driver or anyone on the street about air quality on a hazy day, I was normally told that it was fog. No matter how much I tried to convince…
The Eighteenth Party Congress’ Third Plenary Session’s Decision maps out the country’s plan for cultural and media development. There is nothing on the surface that suggests a radical departure from the tight control the Chinese party-state exerts. The Decision is…
In early 2012, China's government, in cooperation with the World Bank, issued a major white paper on the economic and social challenges facing the country in the period through 2030. The report called for a new model of economic growth…