Emily Feng
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emilyzfeng.bsky.social
Emily Feng
@emilyzfeng.bsky.social
NPR correspondent. 10 years in China and Taiwan. Now DC-based. My book "Let Only Red Flowers Bloom" is now out: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724947/let-only-red-flowers-bloom-by-emily-feng/
Reposted by Emily Feng
I am horrified that the United States continues to set precedent for China to take unilateral action against Taiwan.

It isn’t 疑美論, it is 怕美論.
January 3, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Emily Feng
The U.S. military action in Venezuela has drawn condemnation from many regional governments and global powers alike, raising fresh questions about legality, sovereignty and the risk of escalation. n.pr/3NsAox1
U.S. strikes on Venezuela spark alarm across Latin America and beyond
The U.S. military action in Venezuela has drawn condemnation from many regional governments and global powers alike, raising fresh questions about legality, sovereignty and the risk of escalation.
n.pr
January 3, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Emily Feng
👇 An unusually tough year to pick 5 China books that stood out, as more than a dozen could have made the list. I set some rules for myself to limit the field (explained below) & chose @emilyzfeng.bsky.social's & Dan Wang's debut book, latest ones by Rian Thum & CK Lee + I Deliver Parcels in Beijing
My latest list of China books of the year up at @fivebooks.com —along with an interview (key to read for a sense of the books AND at the end has a note explaining some of the rules I set myself embarking on an impossible task given how many good works keep coming out) fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
The Best China Books of 2025
American professor and modern Chinese history specialist Jeffrey Wasserstrom recommends favourite books about China published in 2025.
fivebooks.com
December 30, 2025 at 7:34 PM
A bit niche but I really loved Islamic China - one of the most insightful and conceptually interesting books so far on Islam in China that I've read
fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
The Best China Books of 2025
American professor and modern Chinese history specialist Jeffrey Wasserstrom recommends favourite books about China published in 2025.
fivebooks.com
December 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Emily Feng
A great article by @heldavidson.bsky.social

"Lin is among hundreds of people whose remains Liu, a 58-year-old Taiwanese man, has helped return to China over the past 23 years."
‘Ferryman of the souls’: the man who helps Taiwan’s dead return home to China
Liu De-wen operates at a sensitive space in Taiwan’s history, as Beijing demands reunification with the island
www.theguardian.com
December 29, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Good that China is trying to get ahead of AI chatbot development, but among the rules up for public debate (I do not these are not implemented yet) are: "Use data sets that conform to the core socialist values and embody the exceptional traditional culture of the Chinese people"
China has put out draft measures on human-like interactive AI services (chatbots etc.)
We'll get a working translation and some analysis soon, but these rules will set the standard of responsibility for inducing user suicidal ideation, dependancy, etc.
www.chinalawtranslate.com/chatbot-meas...
www.chinalawtranslate.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Emily Feng
It used to be that the United States would use Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to transmit truth across the borders of repressive regimes.

Now the work of American reporters, having been censored, is being smuggled across the border to reach Americans.
The 60 Minutes piece on the Trump Administration’s torture prison that Bari Weiss doesn’t want you to see has leaked.
December 22, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Emily Feng
“Chinese analysts have interpreted the new strategy as evidence of American retreat.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/b...
China Is Feeling Strong and Senses an American Retreat
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Emily Feng
Selena Simmons-Duffin at NPR broke the news about the trans kids’ health care ban, and now she’s following up. Note that she actually talks to doctors and trans kids, not just politicians.

www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Trump's push to end transgender care for young people opposed by pediatricians
Doctors and children's hospitals say nothing in the evidence has changed to justify the Trump administration's efforts to ban gender-affirming care for teens and tweens.
www.npr.org
December 20, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Yesterday night I was dissecting with fellow audio lovers the genius sound design behind Jad Abumrad’s new series on Fela Kuti. It offered lessons on how to write around music, which I tried to incorporate in stories like this one, from Syria

www.npr.org/2025/12/12/n...
Old divides in a new Syria
One year after the ousting of the Assad regime, some of the first Syrian revolutionaries return to their homes and try to start their lives again. But new divisions and old animosities still fester.
www.npr.org
December 18, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The fiction list is (also) really excellent; my reading list is set for the next few months
December 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
An administration lawyer argued on Monday Guan should be deported to Uganda, a country he has absolutely no ties to. www.npr.org/2025/12/17/g...
A Chinese man who filmed secret footage in Xinjiang risks deportation from the U.S.
Guan Heng sailed to the U.S. by boat from the Bahamas after publishing footage he filmed of purported detention camps in China. He has been held in immigration detention since August.
www.npr.org
December 17, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Can't wait to see this film

"Bi returned to Guizhou after graduation and set up a wedding-videography studio. At one point, he considered quitting film altogether and becoming a demolition man." www.newyorker.com/culture/pers...
Bi Gan’s Dream Factory
With “Resurrection,” the director has made a surrealist epic not just about Chinese history but about the cinema itself.
www.newyorker.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM
"Have you ever in your life encountered a character as wretched as Donald Trump?" David Remnick in the New Yorker

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Donald Trump’s Remarks on the Death of Rob Reiner Are Next-Level Degradation
On a weekend of terrible violent events, you would not expect a President of the United States to make matters even worse. But, of course, he did.
www.newyorker.com
December 16, 2025 at 6:52 PM
"Chinese authorities arrested dozens of Tibetans who were protesting a mining project in one of their communities, according to Tibetan activists and the government in exile, an act of defiance by a community that has been tightly controlled by Beijing." www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...
Exclusive | Tibetan Activists Say China Has Detained Protesters Who Staged Rare Act of Defiance
Chinese authorities arrested dozens of Tibetans who were protesting a mining project, according to Tibetan activists and the government in exile.
www.wsj.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I can't really think of another billionaire who has been so popular among ordinary people

www.npr.org/2025/12/15/n...
Hong Kong court convicts pro-democracy activist and mogul Jimmy Lai
The business mogul and activist has been in ailing health and has already spent more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement in Hong Kong before his guilty verdict.
www.npr.org
December 15, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“An increasing number of “crazy rich” clients are commissioning dozens, or even hundreds, of U.S.-born babies with the goal of “forging an unstoppable family dynasty,” he said.” www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...
The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate
Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites are building mega-families—testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.
www.wsj.com
December 14, 2025 at 4:15 PM
“Might one say the word neijuan … has made a full involution?”

www.npr.org/2025/12/10/n...
Feeling burned out? There's a word for that in Mandarin Chinese
How an obscure term used in anthropology leaped from the pages of academia into the Chinese meme world and then became part of Chinese government policymaking.
www.npr.org
December 13, 2025 at 4:19 AM
"the term has come full circle to its roots describing unproductive economic activity. Might one say the word neijuan … has made a full involution?"

www.npr.org/2025/12/10/n...
Feeling burned out? There's a word for that in Mandarin Chinese
How an obscure term used in anthropology leaped from the pages of academia into the Chinese meme world and then became part of Chinese government policymaking.
www.npr.org
December 11, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Here at NPR we are mourning at our editor Kevin Drew suddenly dying

I am in shock. He never let on he was sick.

Remembering NPR's Kevin Drew one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5639...
🔊 Listen Now: Remembering NPR's Kevin Drew
Morning Edition on NPR One | 0:46
one.npr.org
December 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM