Kaliva/Shutterstock
Xi’s New Year address wasn’t about threatening Taiwan – there’s more going on than we think.
Interior of the British Museum.
MarkLG/Shutterstock
Translators work has historically received little acknowledgement.
Andy Wong/AP/AAP
The Chinese leader’s recent confirmation of his power has significant implications – and a look at history can reveal what those are.
Now a symbol of Japanese culture, the Kimono has Chinese roots.
supawat bursuk/Shutterstock
The Kimono is a distinct cultural symbol of Japan and for that reason, it has a complicated reputation around much of Asia.
Confucius at the ‘Apricot Altar’. By Kano Tan'yû (Japanese, 1602–1674). Mid-17th century.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Confucius looked nothing like the great sage in his own time as he is widely known in ours. But his ideas continue to shape contemporary life for many.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The CCP has little to celebrate in terms of what it has done for China. Its chief achievement has been staying in power for as long as it has.
Pixeljoy/Shutterstock.com
New research shows that the oldest surviving anatomical atlas comes from Han Dynasty China, and was written over 2,000 years ago.
A patient is transferred to a new temporary hospital in Wuhan.
EPA
The Chinese Communist Party has long used healthcare as part of its propaganda operation.
Chinese stamps commemorating Deng Xiaoping, a leader widely regarded to have modernised the country and made it a formidable economic power, 1998.
Shutterstock
China is one of the world’s largest economies, and Deng Xiaoping was arguably the man who made that happen through his visions of economic reform.
China’s aspirations of global dominance will hit a snag given the world’s other major powers identify democratic values as central to their national identies. Only China and Russia do not. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in June 2018.
(AP Photo/Dake Kang)
New research suggests the values and identities of the world’s great powers present a major barrier to China’s aspirations of global domination. Do not bet on China’s hegemonic prospects just yet.
In this November 2017 photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare to shake their hands after a joint news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The China-U.S. trade conflict is about far more than trade; it’s about American efforts to change how China deals with the world.
(AP Photo/Andy Wong)
The recent U.S. trade mission to China failed, allowing no space for future compromise. What follows will likely be much more than a simple trade war.
Jia Baoyu, the protagonist of Dream of the Red Chamber, as drawn by Gai Qi, 1879.
Wikimedia
Dream of the Red Chamber, by Cao Xueqin, follows the travails of a pubescent boy. Somehow, through the spats, crushes and rivalries of a handful of teenagers, the great questions of the human condition are broached.
Xi Jinping votes on a constitutional amendment lifting presidential term limits.
REUTERS/Jason Lee
Recent changes to China’s constitution signal loud and clear that any hope for a path to democracy must be checked with reality.
Yuan Shikai in 1915.
Wikimedia Commons
There’s a very unflattering historical parallel for Xi Jinping’s move to lift term limits. The Chinese Communist Party is having none of it.
The cast of The New Legends of Monkey.
ABC/IMDB
ABC’s The New Legends of Monkey puts a fresh spin on the ‘80s cult classic Monkey’ continuing a long tradition of culture crossing.
Plato, Confucius and Aristotle. Ancient Greek philosophy is widely taught in American universities, but classes in Chinese philosophy are few and far between.
Public domain
It’s more important than ever that the U.S. understand China. So why don’t our universities teach Chinese thought?
A Mexican who was recently deported from the U.S. in Tijuana, Mexico.
REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
From Chinese laborers to ‘bad hombres,’ the US settler mentality has perpetuated an immigration system that pushes out unwanted groups and bypasses the Constitution.
The Red Detachment of Women was one of just eight model theatrical pieces approved for performance during the Cultural Revolution.
Mark Gambino
The staging in Melbourne of this classic of the Cultural Revolution has attracted controversy. And amid Bermuda shorts and weapons galore, this political ballet has contemporary resonances.
From its earliest days, the influx of outsiders created the distinctive urban character that has driven the development of Shanghai into a modern metropolis.
Wenjie, Zhang/flickr
From its earliest days as a haven for refugees, Shanghai developed a distinctive character and urban identity that have driven its emergence as one of the world’s great metropolises.
Paying respects in Mao’s home town.
EPA/How Hwee Young
Five decades ago, China began a decade of devastating crackdowns and purges – and the causes are still poorly understood.