The Jury is Out: Mao Zedong Swam Faster Than Today’s Olympic Champions

Reading THE PAPER

Reading the paper was an essential ritual of my childhood. I remember tiptoeing out with bare feet some days, the frost still…

For Journalism in China, a Millennial Shift

The period from the mid-1990s to roughly the mid-2000s was a golden era for Chinese journalists. Now, however, many of the (still young) old guard have…

The Maoist Revival That Unraveled

A vocal concert was held on May 2 in the auditorium of the Great Hall of the People, one of China’s…

How Xi Jinping Views the News

It will take many months to unpack the implications of the new and comprehensive media policy Chinese…

The Mea Culpa Machine

Any journalist worth their salt, anywhere in the world, is hungry. They live for the scoop. In April 1957, before the…

When is a fact a fact in China?

If you are a journalist in China, “the spirit” moves you. And the spirit refers, of course, to the…