Made in China Journal
@madeinchinajournal.com
The Made in China Journal is an independent #openaccess publication that seeks to facilitate critical discussion about Chinese politics and society. Visit us at https://madeinchinajournal.com.
A Global China Lab initiative (https://globalchinalab.com).
A Global China Lab initiative (https://globalchinalab.com).
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Global China Lab
Global China Lab is a non-profit organisation established by researchers and practitioners with the aim of advancing knowledge of contemporary China.
globalchinalab.org
With lots of new people joining Bluesky, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce the projects falling under the umbrella of the Global China Lab, a new non-profit we established this year with the aim of advancing open knowledge about China. 1/
||NEW PROFILE|| The Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone is China’s only national-level economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos. Framed as a low-carbon demonstration zone, the SDZ nonetheless faces persistent challenges related to labour, land, and the environment, write Ellen Li and Juliet Lu.
Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone - The People's Map of Global China
The Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (SDZ) is China’s only national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos. Established through a ‘land-for-funding’ arrangement, it was develop...
thepeoplesmap.net
December 4, 2025 at 11:03 PM
||NEW PROFILE|| The Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone is China’s only national-level economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos. Framed as a low-carbon demonstration zone, the SDZ nonetheless faces persistent challenges related to labour, land, and the environment, write Ellen Li and Juliet Lu.
How did China’s early foreign student programs balance socialist solidarity with a climate of surveillance and distrust? In this essay, Yimei Liu traces how foreign students in the early PRC navigated state-managed hospitality, restricted mobility, and pervasive monitoring.
Political Depression and China’s Foreign Student Programs, 1950–1966 | Made in China Journal
China’s foreign student programs, many initiated under the banner of the unity of socialist countries and Afro-Asian solidarity, were originally designed to project international recognition of the ne...
madeinchinajournal.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:38 PM
How did China’s early foreign student programs balance socialist solidarity with a climate of surveillance and distrust? In this essay, Yimei Liu traces how foreign students in the early PRC navigated state-managed hospitality, restricted mobility, and pervasive monitoring.
||EVENT|| Join us this Thursday for the second webinar in our series on online gender-based violence in China. This session will shine a light on groups whose experiences are often pushed further into invisibility, especially LGBTQ+ individuals and women with disabilities. Registration is essential.
Confronting Online Gender-Based Violence in China: Voices, Vulnerabilities, and Global Solidarity - Global China Lab
Join us for a three-part webinar series organised by the Global China Lab and the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne as
globalchinalab.org
December 1, 2025 at 9:33 PM
||EVENT|| Join us this Thursday for the second webinar in our series on online gender-based violence in China. This session will shine a light on groups whose experiences are often pushed further into invisibility, especially LGBTQ+ individuals and women with disabilities. Registration is essential.
|| NEW EPISODE || Six years after Hong Kong’s mass protests, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social talks with sociologist Ching Kwan Lee and historian @jwassers.bsky.social about the struggle’s enduring significance, its transnational afterlives, and what it teaches us amid today’s democratic backsliding.
Episode 6 | Hong Kong in Protest, Redux
In 2019, more than a million people poured onto the streets of Hong Kong, with many returning week after week. The song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ soon emerged as the movement’s unofficial anthem. What bega...
madeinchinajournal.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:34 AM
|| NEW EPISODE || Six years after Hong Kong’s mass protests, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social talks with sociologist Ching Kwan Lee and historian @jwassers.bsky.social about the struggle’s enduring significance, its transnational afterlives, and what it teaches us amid today’s democratic backsliding.
|| NEW PROFILE || Chinese migration to Madagascar began more than a century ago and the new arrivals evolved into a deeply integrated community. However, bilateral ties have experienced ebbs and flows, with China’s image in the country impacted by recent controversies, writes Xuefei Shi.
Madagascar - The People's Map of Global China
Chinese migration to Madagascar began more than a century ago and the new arrivals evolved into a deeply integrated community. However, bilateral ties have experienced ebbs and flows, with China’s ima...
thepeoplesmap.net
November 25, 2025 at 10:17 PM
|| NEW PROFILE || Chinese migration to Madagascar began more than a century ago and the new arrivals evolved into a deeply integrated community. However, bilateral ties have experienced ebbs and flows, with China’s image in the country impacted by recent controversies, writes Xuefei Shi.
Don’t miss the first in our three-part webinar series on online gender-based violence in China, happening this Thursday. The event will be held in English and Chinese, with simultaneous interpretation. Register and help us spread the word:
globalchinalab.org/confronting-...
globalchinalab.org/confronting-...
November 24, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Don’t miss the first in our three-part webinar series on online gender-based violence in China, happening this Thursday. The event will be held in English and Chinese, with simultaneous interpretation. Register and help us spread the word:
globalchinalab.org/confronting-...
globalchinalab.org/confronting-...
How do pregnant women in China navigate empowerment amid shifting gender norms? Mingxuan Li and Anna Lora-Wainwright show how women challenge patriarchal expectations through two intertwined strategies: seeking greater support from partners and asserting autonomy to protect their own agency.
Pathways to Empowered Motherhood in Contemporary China
An essay on how pregnant women in China negotiate empowerment, balancing support, autonomy, and resistance to patriarchal norms.
madeinchinajournal.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:38 AM
How do pregnant women in China navigate empowerment amid shifting gender norms? Mingxuan Li and Anna Lora-Wainwright show how women challenge patriarchal expectations through two intertwined strategies: seeking greater support from partners and asserting autonomy to protect their own agency.
Join us for a webinar series on online gender-based violence in China. We will discuss how technology-facilitated sexual violence unfolds in China, who bears the brunt of it, and where legal and policy gaps persist, while also drawing on global experiences and promising practices.
November 19, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Join us for a webinar series on online gender-based violence in China. We will discuss how technology-facilitated sexual violence unfolds in China, who bears the brunt of it, and where legal and policy gaps persist, while also drawing on global experiences and promising practices.
|| NEW PROFILE || Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1955, Nepal’s relations with the People’s Republic of China have evolved around three key factors: Nepal’s strategic Himalayan location, its pursuit of economic development, and Beijing’s security concerns over Tibet, writes Zezhou Yang.
Nepal - The People's Map of Global China
Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1955, Nepal’s relations with the People’s Republic of China have evolved around three key factors: Nepal’s strategic Himalayan location, its pursuit of economic d...
thepeoplesmap.net
November 13, 2025 at 10:16 PM
|| NEW PROFILE || Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1955, Nepal’s relations with the People’s Republic of China have evolved around three key factors: Nepal’s strategic Himalayan location, its pursuit of economic development, and Beijing’s security concerns over Tibet, writes Zezhou Yang.
China’s achievements at scale are undeniable—but scale is not system. Responding to @kaiserkuo.bsky.social’s call to judge by delivery, @messingschlager.bsky.social argues that durable performance depends on independent measurement, contestable feedback, and system integration, not size alone.
Scale Is Not a System: Learning from China without Mimicry
A reply to Kaiser Kuo that weighs China’s achievements against the limits of performance legitimacy and the value of democratic institutions.
madeinchinajournal.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:21 AM
China’s achievements at scale are undeniable—but scale is not system. Responding to @kaiserkuo.bsky.social’s call to judge by delivery, @messingschlager.bsky.social argues that durable performance depends on independent measurement, contestable feedback, and system integration, not size alone.
When the MaskPark case broke on China’s internet, it exposed a vast online trade in non-consensual images of women. As censorship buried the story, victims were left to navigate trauma, stigma, and official neglect on their own. Ling Li reflects on what this says on gendered violence in China today.
MaskPark and the Silence around China’s Gender-Based Violence Online | Made in China Journal
When the MaskPark incident broke in mid-2025, it jolted the Chinese internet (Hawkins 2025). Hidden behind the encrypted walls of Telegram—a platform officially blocked in China but accessible through...
madeinchinajournal.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:47 AM
When the MaskPark case broke on China’s internet, it exposed a vast online trade in non-consensual images of women. As censorship buried the story, victims were left to navigate trauma, stigma, and official neglect on their own. Ling Li reflects on what this says on gendered violence in China today.
In her work, C. Pam Zhang explores Chinese diasporic subjectivities across shifting temporal and geographic terrains. Adopting a queer counter-perspective, she unsettles racist, classist, and heteronormative narratives of ‘Chineseness’, ‘manhood’, and ‘womanhood’, writes Kimiko Suda.
Queer-Feminist Journeys as Critical Counter-Frame
Queer Chinese diaspora in C. Pam Zhang’s novels, with a focus on trauma, counter-narratives, pleasure, and global responsibility.
madeinchinajournal.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
In her work, C. Pam Zhang explores Chinese diasporic subjectivities across shifting temporal and geographic terrains. Adopting a queer counter-perspective, she unsettles racist, classist, and heteronormative narratives of ‘Chineseness’, ‘manhood’, and ‘womanhood’, writes Kimiko Suda.
Drawing on one month of residence in a retirement community outside Beijing, Brian DeMare examines the Chinese silver-hair market, tracing everyday experiences of retirees and highlighting the interplay between personal memories of PRC history and the commodification of elder care in today's China.
A Grey Beard in the Silver-Hair Market: One Month in China’s Retirement City
Laoye left Louisiana like an outlaw cowboy, abandoning all his earthly possessions, and hitting the road. The flat-screen TVs, the piles of clothes, the closet full of USB cords? No longer needed. Jus...
madeinchinajournal.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Drawing on one month of residence in a retirement community outside Beijing, Brian DeMare examines the Chinese silver-hair market, tracing everyday experiences of retirees and highlighting the interplay between personal memories of PRC history and the commodification of elder care in today's China.
Why did Western firms move manufacturing to East Asia? Who are the workers behind the region's industrial rise, and what are the social costs? For our podcast, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social spoke with Anru Lee and Ya-Wen Lei on gender, labour, and (de)industrialisation in China and Taiwan.
Episode 5 | Labour and (De)Industrialisation in East Asia | Made in China Journal
Over the past few years, industrial policy and manufacturing capacity, especially in the high-tech sector, have been at the centre of great power rivalry between the United States and China. The White...
madeinchinajournal.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Why did Western firms move manufacturing to East Asia? Who are the workers behind the region's industrial rise, and what are the social costs? For our podcast, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social spoke with Anru Lee and Ya-Wen Lei on gender, labour, and (de)industrialisation in China and Taiwan.
Reposted by Made in China Journal
Always a lot of interesting pieces in @madeinchinajournal.com
Drones,a typewriter, hydropower, love, basketball are amongst the topics in the 20+ articles contained.
Drones,a typewriter, hydropower, love, basketball are amongst the topics in the 20+ articles contained.
The new issue of the Made in China Journal is out! This time we explore what it means to come of age in China today, at a moment when the paths to adulthood are increasingly uncertain, yet the pressure to succeed remains relentless. Download the whole issue at madeinchinajournal.com/2025/10/27/b...
October 28, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Always a lot of interesting pieces in @madeinchinajournal.com
Drones,a typewriter, hydropower, love, basketball are amongst the topics in the 20+ articles contained.
Drones,a typewriter, hydropower, love, basketball are amongst the topics in the 20+ articles contained.
The new issue of the Made in China Journal is out! This time we explore what it means to come of age in China today, at a moment when the paths to adulthood are increasingly uncertain, yet the pressure to succeed remains relentless. Download the whole issue at madeinchinajournal.com/2025/10/27/b...
October 28, 2025 at 10:01 AM
The new issue of the Made in China Journal is out! This time we explore what it means to come of age in China today, at a moment when the paths to adulthood are increasingly uncertain, yet the pressure to succeed remains relentless. Download the whole issue at madeinchinajournal.com/2025/10/27/b...
||NEW PROFILE|| Venezuela–China ties go back to 1974, but it was under Chávez that the relationship deepened through oil-backed loans and cooperation deals. Today, despite sanctions and economic collapse, Beijing remains a central, if more cautious, pillar of Caracas’ foreign and development policy.
Venezuela - The People's Map of Global China
Venezuela established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1974, but it was under Hugo Chávez that ties deepened through oil-backed loans and extensive cooperation agreements. I...
thepeoplesmap.net
October 24, 2025 at 4:03 AM
||NEW PROFILE|| Venezuela–China ties go back to 1974, but it was under Chávez that the relationship deepened through oil-backed loans and cooperation deals. Today, despite sanctions and economic collapse, Beijing remains a central, if more cautious, pillar of Caracas’ foreign and development policy.
In this essay, Qing Shen examines how older gay men in Shanghai reflect on their heterosexual marriages amid public debates that brand such unions as 'marriage fraud'. In doing so, he unsettles the moral certainty behind that label and shows why these arrangements cannot be reduced to deception.
‘Marriage Fraud’? Reflections on Marriage of Older Queer Men in Shanghai | Made in China Journal
In April 2025, Aqiang, a renowned gay rights advocate, published an online article titled ‘Condemning Gay Elders for “Marriage Fraud” Is as Absurd as Blaming Ancient People for Not Using the Internet’...
madeinchinajournal.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
In this essay, Qing Shen examines how older gay men in Shanghai reflect on their heterosexual marriages amid public debates that brand such unions as 'marriage fraud'. In doing so, he unsettles the moral certainty behind that label and shows why these arrangements cannot be reduced to deception.
In this essay, Ling Tang examines gender-critical currents in Chinese feminist scholarship: one revives socialist legacies to unsettle Western feminist paradigms, the other rejects both socialist and liberal frames in favour of grounded documentation within China’s historical and cultural contexts.
Gender-Critical Chinese Feminisms: From Critical Socialism to Post-Utopia | Made in China Journal
Since the 2010s, the debate about anti-gender politics has centred on the rise of right-wing forces and ideologies that are trans-exclusionary, queerphobic, and anti-feminist—particularly hostile to q...
madeinchinajournal.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:48 AM
In this essay, Ling Tang examines gender-critical currents in Chinese feminist scholarship: one revives socialist legacies to unsettle Western feminist paradigms, the other rejects both socialist and liberal frames in favour of grounded documentation within China’s historical and cultural contexts.
In this essay, Alex Taek-Gwang Lee argues that China no longer mirrors Western modernity but transforms it from within, forcing us to rethink the very categories through which we understand capitalism, socialism, and the modern world, and to confront the limits of the West's theoretical imagination.
The Repetition of China | Made in China Journal
Chinese scholars who have engaged with Fredric Jameson often observe—sometimes with admiration and sometimes with a degree of irony—that he appears ‘more Marxist than any Marxist in China’. Jameson’s ...
madeinchinajournal.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:24 PM
In this essay, Alex Taek-Gwang Lee argues that China no longer mirrors Western modernity but transforms it from within, forcing us to rethink the very categories through which we understand capitalism, socialism, and the modern world, and to confront the limits of the West's theoretical imagination.
|| NEW PROFILE || A key node of the China–Myanmar Economic Corridor, the Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port was meant to anchor China’s access to the Indian Ocean. Yet, 12 years on, the project faces mounting obstacles—from armed conflict to debt concerns—casting doubt on its future, writes Linda Calabrese.
Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port - The People's Map of Global China
The Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port, a cornerstone of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China–Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), is a proposed deepwater seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Intended...
thepeoplesmap.net
October 9, 2025 at 11:23 PM
|| NEW PROFILE || A key node of the China–Myanmar Economic Corridor, the Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port was meant to anchor China’s access to the Indian Ocean. Yet, 12 years on, the project faces mounting obstacles—from armed conflict to debt concerns—casting doubt on its future, writes Linda Calabrese.
Thirty years after the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference, the Chinese government is once again calling on women to serve the nation, this time in science and technology. In this essay, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social revisits a century of women in science in China, tracing their struggles and achievements.
Beyond Representation: On Being a Woman in Science in China | Made in China Journal
In the autumn of 1995, Ye Shuhua made a speech. During the NGO Forum at the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, the 68-year-old astronomer took to the microphone and cal...
madeinchinajournal.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Thirty years after the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference, the Chinese government is once again calling on women to serve the nation, this time in science and technology. In this essay, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social revisits a century of women in science in China, tracing their struggles and achievements.
What does it mean to speak of decriminalisation or depathologisation of homosexuality in China? In his new essay, Petrus Liu challenges Western narratives of queer progress, arguing that same-sex desire was never criminalised but rendered unintelligible within prevailing legal and cultural norms.
Queer Unintelligibility in China | Made in China Journal
It has become something of a truism, in both academic discourse and everyday conversation, that invisibility is a central form of queer oppression. In a culture in which queer lives are erased—whether...
madeinchinajournal.com
October 6, 2025 at 8:39 AM
What does it mean to speak of decriminalisation or depathologisation of homosexuality in China? In his new essay, Petrus Liu challenges Western narratives of queer progress, arguing that same-sex desire was never criminalised but rendered unintelligible within prevailing legal and cultural norms.
How should we understand Jin Xing, China’s most famous transgender celebrity? In this new essay, Yahia Ma unpacks her embrace of gender binarism not as a paradox, but as a strategy that secures mainstream visibility while opening space to imagine cultural and political otherness in China and beyond.
Only Two Genders? On Jin Xing’s Reaffirmation of Gender Binarism and Heteronormativity
Jin Xing 金星 (literally, ‘golden star’, or ‘Venus’ in English) is a household name in mainland China. Since undergoing gender-affirmation surgery in 1994, she has established herself as a dancer, telev...
madeinchinajournal.com
September 30, 2025 at 11:21 AM
How should we understand Jin Xing, China’s most famous transgender celebrity? In this new essay, Yahia Ma unpacks her embrace of gender binarism not as a paradox, but as a strategy that secures mainstream visibility while opening space to imagine cultural and political otherness in China and beyond.
Southeast Asia is now a global hub for online scams. But who works in these compounds, and under what conditions? How should authorities respond? In this episode of our podcast, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social speaks with @ivanfranceschini.bsky.social and Ling Li about their new book 'Scam' (Verso 2025).
Episode 4 | Inside Southeast Asia’s Scam Compounds | Made in China Journal
Rejecting calls from an unknown number, blocking suspicious accounts on social media, turning down a job offer too good to be true: these days, almost all of us have had some interactions with online ...
madeinchinajournal.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Southeast Asia is now a global hub for online scams. But who works in these compounds, and under what conditions? How should authorities respond? In this episode of our podcast, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social speaks with @ivanfranceschini.bsky.social and Ling Li about their new book 'Scam' (Verso 2025).