China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know© concludes with an extensive “Further Reading” section that points readers to books and articles that will provide more in-depth explanations of topics that are introduced in the book. There are also many online resources that anyone interested in China will find useful, and new ones are frequently appearing.
GENERAL RESOURCES
Podcasts
Asia Unbound: Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations hosts this series, which covers not just China but all of Asia.
Carnegie Council Asia Dialogues: Hosted by program director Devin Stewart, a series that examines all of Asia and frequently features episodes about China (click on “Multimedia” tab for a list of episodes).
China 21: Interviews on politics, economics, society, and international relations featuring scholars from the University of California, San Diego’s 21st Century China Center.
China History Podcast: Host Laszlo Montgomery roams far and wide over the expanse of Chinese history, often devoting multiple episodes to a deep dive into a single topic.
ChinaPower Podcast: Produced by a Washington, D.C. think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ChinaPower focuses on international relations and military matters.
Harvard on China: Interviews and recordings of live events hosted by the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Little Red Podcast: Hosted by Melbourne-based veteran journalist Louisa Lim and academic Graeme Smith, LRP covers an eclectic range of current events, often from an Australian perspective. Lim regularly writes companion pieces to new episodes that appear at the LA Review of Books China Channel.
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations: Posts audio and video of its live events, as well as shorter interviews with authors, (former) government officials, and those working in the China-focused nonprofit sector.
New Books in East Asian Studies: Authors (often scholars) of new works on China, Japan, and Korea speak at length about their research and writing processes.
NüVoices Podcast and Wǒ Men Podcast: Two shows hosted by women that focus largely—though not exclusively—on gender issues in contemporary China.
Sinica Podcast: A weekly look at Chinese politics, international relations, culture, and society, hosted by Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn. New episodes are available at SupChina, while the back catalogue can be found at ChinaFile. Kuo also hosts a short weekly spinoff podcast, the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, which discusses business and financial news.
Email Newsletters
Many of the newsletters below are weekly summaries of articles published by China-focused websites—an easy way to stay current on many different topics. All are free unless otherwise noted.
Changpian: A monthly roundup of literary nonfiction writing in Chinese, curated and put in context by journalist Tabitha Speelman.
China-Africa Project: A weekly digest of news stories and academic research concerning China-Africa engagement, published by Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden.
ChinaFile: Weekly summary of new posts at the ChinaFile website, a project based at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.
Chinafornia: Journalist Matt Sheehan’s regular examination of the ties that bind China and California.
Chinarrative: Translated excerpts and links to the latest in Chinese longform nonfiction writing.
HKFP Dim Sum: Weekly digest of stories from the Hong Kong Free Press website, an independent news organization covering developments in Hong Kong.
LARB China Channel: Weekly newsletter of new posts at the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel. (Disclosure: both Maura Elizabeth Cunningham and Jeff Wasserstrom are on the China Channel editorial board.)
MacroPolo: Chinese economic news explained for non-economists, by experts at the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago.
Radii China: Weekly summary of stories focusing on culture, society, media, tech, and more.
Sinocism: Requires paid subscription (two-week free trial currently available). Sinocism, produced multiple times a week by Bill Bishop, is a comprehensive look at the China news of the moment; particularly strong on politics, the economy, and U.S.-China relations.
Sixth Tone: Weekly roundup of stories that focus on Chinese culture and society; produced by Shanghai United Media Group (Chinese state media).
SupChina: A daily roundup of China news across a variety of topics. A free basic subscription delivers full newsletters on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday only; Monday and Friday newsletters, as well as many other benefits, come with an upgrade to the paid SupChina Access program.
Transpacifica: A weekly survey of major issues in U.S.-China relations, technology, and politics, composed by Yale Law School fellow Graham Webster.
Other Online Resources
China Digital Times: Aggregates news stories from and about China, publishes leaked censorship directives from the “Ministry of Truth,” and keeps track of Chinese internet slang and memes.
China Film Insider: The latest news from the world of Chinese movie-making.
China Heritage: An eclectic array of translations, essays, political analyses, and more, guided by the “New Sinology” approach of Geremie R. Barmé and others.
China Media Project: Monitors and contextualizes stories from Chinese state media.
China Rhyming: Posts about Chinese history, architecture, books, movies, and much more, by author Paul French.
Chinoiresie: “Mismatched shards of China”—essays on a range of topics—as well as the home of Made in China: A Quarterly on Chinese Labour, Civil Society, and Rights and an archive of Little Red Podcast episodes.
Chublic Opinion: In-depth analysis of issues attracting discussion online in China.
What’s on Weibo: Tracks and analyzes hot topics on Chinese social media; “aims to explain the story behind the hashtag.”
UPDATES ON SPECIFIC TOPICS
September 14, 2018: A lot has happened since we had our last chance to make changes late in 2017 and since the book came out in March 2018. Some of the most important are: the #MeToo movement came to China; the Constitution was changed so that Xi Jinping is not limited, like his immediate predecessors, to two five-year terms as President; revelations came out about large-scale detention centers in Xinjiang, which have often been called “re-education camps” but some have referred to as “concentration camps”; there were new controversies in Hong Kong relating to censorship and dissent; and early moves were made to mark the 40th anniversary of “Reform and Opening,” which give us hints as to what we are likely to see more of in the months to come. Much else has happened, including Liu Xia’s release from house arrest, but the preceding seem enough to offer further resources on here. Please note, we will just give very selective citations; we recommend following the podcasts and publications listed above to stay current on the news.
We have written about some of these issues ourselves, either together, alone, or in collaboration with others, so that’s a good place to start. See, for example, our joint piece on #MeToo memes in China, the conversation that one of us (Cunningham) curated for ChinaFile that touches on various recent issues in a look back at the Beijing Games ten years on, and the essay that one of us (Wasserstrom) co-wrote for The Nation, which deals with Xinjiang and also with developments in Hong Kong.
For more on #MeToo in China, see the entries under that heading at China Digital Times as well as this recent article for SupChina by Jiayun Feng.
On recent events in Xinjiang, this VOX explainer is useful, as is this comprehensive roundup of articles at SupChina. To go deeper, see this detailed report by Human Rights Watch and this peer-reviewed article by a scholar working on the camps, Adrian Zenz. Chinese official media has responded to these kinds of documents in several ways—by claiming they are false and reveal Western bias (see this, for example); by emphasizing that Xinjiang is a relatively safe and harmonious locale but where terrorism is being fought in a measured way (see this, for example); and by running articles that present Xinjiang as playing an increasingly important role in the Belt and Road Initiative and a place that Chinese and foreign tourists enjoy visiting (see this, for example).
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 