Chinese Dreams Project

Art as Gaokao Alternative

Every year, when the spring is approaching, millions of art students would surge into various art academies to take exams. Chen Huimin is one of the huge army called art students. Every weekend, the girl with...

Kids Left Behind

With whiskers almost covering half of his face, Jiang seems much older than his real age. It was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. Jiang’s parents had finished their lunch for a long time, but he was still in...

Nice Work if You Can Get it

One day in early December 2014, a group of designers was scolded by the boss for a negative working attitude. As the youngest one in the design department, Zhong Weiwei was silent. Two men were fired after the meeting,...

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack

On weekends in the XuanWu Lake Park in Nanjing, Chinese parents hang placards as helper of finding suitable spouses for their unmarried children. Most of the advertisements center around salary, car and apartment. This kind of match-making corner is...

The 57th Ethnic Group

Marziye, is a Uyghur girl from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She is also a freshman in Nanjing University, along with 31 other Uyghur freshmen. Marziye started learning Chinese when she was in kindergarten on her...

Losing My Timidity; Returnees’ Triumph over Adversity

When Liu Qiao got off the plane that landed at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport after 28 hours’ flying, it was sprinkling. Liu took a deep breath, and then realized a faint smell of moist mud and grass. This is the...

New Wave of Entrepreneurship

While a spring thunderstorm in the night revitalized the sleeping world, Qian Yafeng and his team were shivering in the cold, pushing a broken-down motor tricycle full of parcels towards a distant dorm. It was 18th March, the first...

Conquering Loneliness & the Gaokao

A Friday comes again, parents and cars crowed in front of Girls’ Dormitory to pick up their children for a fancy weekend. Tao Lizhu turns around into the room from balcony and packs the school bags, planning to spend...

Latest News

Nanjing North Tops Out, but Jiangbei Still Wants Its Metro

Today’s last concrete pour at Nanjing North Railway Station felt like one of those construction moments that actually means...

Louis Vuitton & Milk Tea Meet in Suzhou; it’s a ¥10.3 Million Fight

how on Earth did a Parisian house of luxury end up in a Suzhou courtroom over a milk tea...

Less Sex, More Pressure and a Story China is Still Learning

China’s private lives are not slipping neatly into silence. The latest survey points to a more awkward picture. Younger...

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