For Complainers, A Stint In China's 'Black Jails'
People often say China is a nation of contrasts: of wealth and poverty, of personal freedom and political limits. But that observation doesn't begin to capture the tensions and incongruities of modern...
View ArticleCan China's Legal System Change?
China's Communist Party will introduce a new slate of leaders this month to run the world's most populous country for at least the next five years. Their to-do list will include dealing with the...
View ArticleIn Rural China, New Leaders Aren't Familiar Faces
An elderly couple is winnowing rice in the front yard of their home in the tiny village of Dongjianggai, about 200 miles northwest of Shanghai. They've just watched China's incoming leaders— including...
View ArticleHow Ordinary Chinese Are Talking, And Fighting, Back
Never have so many Chinese people spoken so freely than on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter. Just 4 years old, the series of microblog services now has more than 400 million users. And, increasingly,...
View ArticleOK, North Korea's Leader Isn't 'Sexiest Man Alive,' Chinese Media Concede
NPR Shanghai correspondent Frank Langfitt sends in an update on one of this week's more amusing stories:
View ArticleA Rare Visit Inside A Chinese Courtroom
After years of covering China, I finally set foot in a Chinese courtroom last week. Foreign reporters need government permission to enter Chinese courts and past attempts had gone nowhere.The last case...
View ArticleNationalist Rhetoric High As Japanese Head To Polls
As Japanese head to the polls Sunday, Shinzo Abe is expected to become Japan's prime minister for the second time.The election takes place as nationalistic rhetoric is on the rise, and while the...
View ArticleJapan's Economic Woes Offer Lessons To U.S.
In the 1980s, Japan appeared to be a world beater — the China of its day. Japanese companies were on a tear, buying up firms in the U.S. and property around the world.But these days, Japan is...
View ArticleMove Over James Bond, China Has An Unlikely Box Office Champ
Movies are big business in China, and 2012 was another record year: Theaters raked in about $2.7 billion, pushing China past Japan to become the world's second-largest market.Those blistering sales...
View ArticleAuntie Anne's Pretzels In Beijing: Why The Chinese Didn't Bite
The lure of the China market is legendary. The dream: Sell something to 1.3 billion people, and you're set.The reality is totally different.Ask the MBAs from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton...
View ArticleA Chinese Army Outpost That's Tucked Into Modern Shanghai
Some people in Shanghai — especially the foreigners — think the city's new Pudong section of town is dull, without character and profoundly unfashionable.Twenty years ago, Pudong was mostly farms and...
View ArticleEx-Inmates Speak Out About Labor Camps As China Considers 'Reforms'
Shen Lixiu's story is numbingly familiar.Officials in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing knocked down her karaoke parlor for development. She says they then offered her compensation that was less than...
View ArticleIn China, Not Everything Has Changed
A lot of journalism about China focuses on the country's rapid and stunning changes, but equally telling are the things that stay the same. I did my first story on China's re-education through labor...
View ArticleHow To Sneak Into A Chinese Village When Police Don't Want You There
On occasion my job requires me to sneak into a Chinese village as I did earlier this week to report a story on a rural uprising. This does not come naturally. I'm 6-foot-2 with gray hair and blue eyes...
View ArticleYoung Chinese Translate America, One Show At A Time
Every week, thousands of young Chinese gather online to translate popular American movies and TV shows into Mandarin. Some do it for fun and to help people learn English, while others see it as a...
View ArticleShanghai's Dead Pigs: Search For Answers Turns Up Denials
More than a week has passed since thousands of dead pigs were first discovered floating in a river in Shanghai, but authorities have yet to explain fully where the pigs came from or why they...
View ArticleA View From South Korea: The North Is 'A Playground Bully'
Nearly two decades ago, a North Korean official threatened to turn Seoul into a "Sea of Fire." South Koreans responded by cleaning out the shelves of supermarkets and preparing for an attack that never...
View ArticleA Symbol Of Korean Cooperation Becomes A Political Casualty
This week, North Korea closed off the last avenue of economic cooperation with its rival, South Korea. Pyongyang says the closing of Kaesong — a joint North-South industrial complex — is temporary.But...
View ArticleWill Lightning Strike Twice For K-Pop's PSY?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ
View ArticleThese Days, More And More Chinese Have Driven A Ford Lately
General Motors has been the American car company in China. Even when GM was in bankruptcy, the Chinese continued to view Buick as a high-status, luxury brand.But now Ford, an also-ran in the market for...
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