Feature Stories

Scandalous Tales Behind Nanjing’s 70 Ancient Names

Nanjing comes tops for a number of things at a global level; longest city wall and oldest wooden Buddhist temple being just two. Today, we add to that list the city that has changed its name more than any...

Between the Tracks; Ancient Pukou

6am:a corner of Pukou, chickens scratch the ground between the railway tracks; sunrise. 早上6点:普口的一个角落,鸡在铁轨之间抓地;日出。 A prevalence of old faces, those who have risen with the dawn. Some exercise with slow movements by the side of the road, others still decked out...

My Smelly Memories; Nanjing Museum Exhibits the Persuasive Sense

The smell of an apple pie down on the street wafts through the air. Suddenly, the memory that your mum cooked in the kitchen after your school finished surges into your head. Or maybe it’s a whiff of a...

Music for the Masses; A Sense of Magnificence

2019 is a big year for anniversaries in China, not least the birth of the Chinese nation itself 70 years ago. Completely unpublicised, however, is the fact that it is also 30 years since the New York Times ran...

The Sixth Sense; Calculating Tarot’s Rise in China

Down a an alleyway off the beaten path of the bohemian Old Town in Changsha, Hunan Province, between a vape and a skate shop, hangs a circular sign bearing the Chinese characters for Tarot (塔罗). It points deeper into...

Abracadabra! China’s Reawakening Interest in Magic No Illusion

Up on the stage, the “fish” first played in the court and then all at once jumped into the pool, immediately turning into a large flounder, spraying water and vomiting fog. Suddenly, in the mist, it became an eight-foot...

Hell is Empty and All the Devils are Here

Thunder roared as the rain had poured down on our heads. We dashed to our destination. The patter of rain hit the concrete. Dripping wet, we entered one of the theatre world’s most spectacular gems, the Nanjing Poly Theatre....

Gateways to the West; 40 Years of Nanjing-St. Louis Sisterhoodfeat

In 1978, China began her period of Reform and Opening Up (găigé kāifàng; 改革开放). One of the ways China opened up to the world was through the official forming of city and province “sister partnerships”. Today, Nanjing boasts 20...

Latest News

Iranians in China become more Visible than Countable

These things often start, not with a statistic, but with a voice; Persian heard in a lift, a WeChat...

Why Chinese Men Can’t Quit; Smoking, Face and the State

China has 300 million smokers, nearly a third of the world's total. The imbalance between the sexes is stark:...

US Dept of Justice Says Nanjing Firm Hacked NASA, Senate & More

A sharp new cyber case has put a Nanjing company at the centre of a much wider political row....

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