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).
Pinned
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/
In his acclaimed 'Breakneck', Dan Wang frames China as a fast-moving technocratic 'engineering state' and the US as a rule-bound 'lawyerly society'. In this review, Clark Aoqi Wu argues the contrast is overly simplistic, substituting a memorable slogan for historical explanation.
Engineers, Lawyers, and the Costs of ‘Building’ | Made in China Journal
Today there are two great peoples on earth who, starting from different points, seem to advance toward the same goal … —Alexis de Tocqueville (2012: 655) In 1919, after visiting Bolshevik Russia, th...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:08 PM
In his acclaimed 'Breakneck', Dan Wang frames China as a fast-moving technocratic 'engineering state' and the US as a rule-bound 'lawyerly society'. In this review, Clark Aoqi Wu argues the contrast is overly simplistic, substituting a memorable slogan for historical explanation.
Why do Chinese gay men eroticise the heteropatriarchal masculinity that oppresses them? Examining online S&M subcultures centred on the worship of straight-acting men, Bingchang Sun challenges interpretations that frame these practices solely as abjection or resistance.
When Heteropatriarchy Turns You On
A tenacious heteropatriarchal logic of gender normativity continues to script the behaviour of Chinese gay men. It was a decade ago when Tiantian Zheng (2015) made the anthropological observation that...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 23, 2026 at 5:43 AM
Why do Chinese gay men eroticise the heteropatriarchal masculinity that oppresses them? Examining online S&M subcultures centred on the worship of straight-acting men, Bingchang Sun challenges interpretations that frame these practices solely as abjection or resistance.
In this essay, @jleibold.bsky.social and Soyonbo Borjgin expose the systematic dismantling of Mongolian-medium schooling in Inner Mongolia and argue that changing school names from Mongolian into Chinese constitutes one of the final acts in cancelling once-promised autonomy and sovereignty.
Rectifying Names, Erasing Mongols: The Unmaking of Mongolian Education in China
On a clear October morning in 2025, two massive cranes rolled up to a middle school in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Workers prised off the large Chinese and Mongolian signs running along the ...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 21, 2026 at 1:30 AM
In this essay, @jleibold.bsky.social and Soyonbo Borjgin expose the systematic dismantling of Mongolian-medium schooling in Inner Mongolia and argue that changing school names from Mongolian into Chinese constitutes one of the final acts in cancelling once-promised autonomy and sovereignty.
Reposted by Made in China Journal
Big @madeinchinajournal.com essay by @tristangbrown.bsky.social on China's "archeological state," in which the Party-state uses the excavation and display of artifacts to bolster its claims to civilizational and historical continuity.
Excavating a History Already Found
A carved stone discovered in Qinghai Province in 2020 drew wide attention in June 2025 when a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences proposed that it was an inscription from the reign…
madeinchinajournal.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Big @madeinchinajournal.com essay by @tristangbrown.bsky.social on China's "archeological state," in which the Party-state uses the excavation and display of artifacts to bolster its claims to civilizational and historical continuity.
Six years after the ‘Be Water’ rebellion, in 'Forever Hong Kong' Ching Kwan Lee interrogates the historical conditions and precedents that precipitated the 2019 revolt, reinterpreting Hongkongers’ political resistance as acts of decolonial defiance. A conversation with @sharonyamsy.bsky.social.
Forever Hong Kong: A Conversation with Ching Kwan Lee
Six years after the spectacular ‘Be Water’ rebellion that rippled across national borders, Forever Hong Kong asks: What historical conditions and precedents precipitated the citywide revolt in 2019? H...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:59 AM
Six years after the ‘Be Water’ rebellion, in 'Forever Hong Kong' Ching Kwan Lee interrogates the historical conditions and precedents that precipitated the 2019 revolt, reinterpreting Hongkongers’ political resistance as acts of decolonial defiance. A conversation with @sharonyamsy.bsky.social.
How does food delivery become masculinised? Zihao Zhang and Jenny Chan show how managers recruit and discipline riders through gendered ideas of masculinity, rewarding a few 'successful' breadwinners while casting others as less worthy men. A look at gender, labour, and the gig economy in China.
Gendered Organisation of Platform Food Delivery Work in China
‘Our motto is —’, the supervisor chanted. ‘Meituan Delivery, punctual and helpful [美团配送, 准时好用]!’, dozens of drivers responded in unison. At 9.30 am, drivers assembled for a roll call under a bridge ne...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:04 AM
How does food delivery become masculinised? Zihao Zhang and Jenny Chan show how managers recruit and discipline riders through gendered ideas of masculinity, rewarding a few 'successful' breadwinners while casting others as less worthy men. A look at gender, labour, and the gig economy in China.
Reposted by Made in China Journal
I’ve just published an article reflecting on several extended trips I’ve made to China over the past few years. A number of outlets, most recently the NYTimes and the Economist, have written about China’s museum boom, usually framing it in terms of national pride or nationalism.
From imperial ritual through Maoist dialectics to Xi-era heritage politics, in this essay @tristangbrown.bsky.social explores how China’s heritage bureaucracy has turned archaeology into a language of governance, transforming artefacts into symbols of civilisational continuity and state authority.
Excavating a History Already Found
A carved stone discovered in Qinghai Province in 2020 drew wide attention in June 2025 when a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences proposed that it was an inscription from the reign of...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:02 PM
I’ve just published an article reflecting on several extended trips I’ve made to China over the past few years. A number of outlets, most recently the NYTimes and the Economist, have written about China’s museum boom, usually framing it in terms of national pride or nationalism.
From imperial ritual through Maoist dialectics to Xi-era heritage politics, in this essay @tristangbrown.bsky.social explores how China’s heritage bureaucracy has turned archaeology into a language of governance, transforming artefacts into symbols of civilisational continuity and state authority.
Excavating a History Already Found
A carved stone discovered in Qinghai Province in 2020 drew wide attention in June 2025 when a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences proposed that it was an inscription from the reign of...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 8, 2026 at 12:55 PM
From imperial ritual through Maoist dialectics to Xi-era heritage politics, in this essay @tristangbrown.bsky.social explores how China’s heritage bureaucracy has turned archaeology into a language of governance, transforming artefacts into symbols of civilisational continuity and state authority.
Reposted by Made in China Journal
as historians say, we always live in precedented times. Sphere of influence logics also echo and reinforce one another now. they flow across not only geopolitical, but also ideological boundaries. e.g. this "multipolar civilizational order" thing that some decolonial people are also obsessed about
As the Monroe Doctrine resurfaces through US military action in Venezuela, Craig Smith looks back to the 20th century to show how, in periods of imperial expansion, Pan-American and Asianist discourses flowed in both directions across the Pacific, not only echoing but also reinforcing one another.
Monroe Doctrine Redux: New Americanism and the Echoes of Empire in China and Japan | Made in China Journal
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation—one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and b...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:16 PM
as historians say, we always live in precedented times. Sphere of influence logics also echo and reinforce one another now. they flow across not only geopolitical, but also ideological boundaries. e.g. this "multipolar civilizational order" thing that some decolonial people are also obsessed about
As the Monroe Doctrine resurfaces through US military action in Venezuela, Craig Smith looks back to the 20th century to show how, in periods of imperial expansion, Pan-American and Asianist discourses flowed in both directions across the Pacific, not only echoing but also reinforcing one another.
Monroe Doctrine Redux: New Americanism and the Echoes of Empire in China and Japan | Made in China Journal
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation—one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and b...
madeinchinajournal.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:43 AM
As the Monroe Doctrine resurfaces through US military action in Venezuela, Craig Smith looks back to the 20th century to show how, in periods of imperial expansion, Pan-American and Asianist discourses flowed in both directions across the Pacific, not only echoing but also reinforcing one another.
|| NEW PROFILE || Although Mauritius has not formally joined the Belt and Road Initiative, its close trade and investment ties with Beijing have prompted scholars and the press to question the motivations and impacts of China’s growing presence in the country, writes Sheng Xuan.
Mauritius - The People's Map of Global China
Since the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 1972, China and Mauritius have generally maintained a stable and cooperative relationship. While Mauritius has not formally joined the Belt an...
thepeoplesmap.net
December 19, 2025 at 3:23 AM
|| NEW PROFILE || Although Mauritius has not formally joined the Belt and Road Initiative, its close trade and investment ties with Beijing have prompted scholars and the press to question the motivations and impacts of China’s growing presence in the country, writes Sheng Xuan.
Blending archival research, ethnography, and cultural analysis with memoir, graphic art, and science fiction, Shana Ye’s 'Queer Chimerica' explores how queer culture, politics, and institutions circulate through the antagonistic interdependence of China and the US. A conversation with Qing Shen.
Queer Chimerica | Made in China Journal
Blending archival work, ethnography, and cultural analysis with memoir, graphic art, and science fiction, Shana Ye’s Queer Chimerica: A Speculative Auto/Ethnography of the Cool Child (University of Mi...
madeinchinajournal.com
December 16, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Blending archival research, ethnography, and cultural analysis with memoir, graphic art, and science fiction, Shana Ye’s 'Queer Chimerica' explores how queer culture, politics, and institutions circulate through the antagonistic interdependence of China and the US. A conversation with Qing Shen.
The American China Studies field is facing an existential threat under the Trump administration. To protect its integrity, we should infuse our work with a critical, comparative, and intersectional analysis of authoritarianism in the United States and China, argues @arthurkaufman.bsky.social.
What Is the Purpose of ‘China-Watching’ in the United States Today?
The executive ignored widespread dissent to force through an illiberal agenda. Violent confrontations between protesters and police brought forth increased repression. In less than a year, new policie...
madeinchinajournal.com
December 13, 2025 at 12:45 AM
The American China Studies field is facing an existential threat under the Trump administration. To protect its integrity, we should infuse our work with a critical, comparative, and intersectional analysis of authoritarianism in the United States and China, argues @arthurkaufman.bsky.social.
When the Hong Kong fire occurred, initial international media coverage focused on bamboo scaffolding. This Orientalised and exoticised the tragedy, obscuring the fact that it was not just an accident, but an outcome shaped by long-term neglect and inequality, writes @tingguowrites.bsky.social.
The Distance Between Us | Made in China Journal
A week after the devastating fire that claimed at least 159 lives in Hong Kong on 26 November, people were still queuing daily for hours until after midnight to join the mourning. As flowers, gifts, a...
madeinchinajournal.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:22 PM
When the Hong Kong fire occurred, initial international media coverage focused on bamboo scaffolding. This Orientalised and exoticised the tragedy, obscuring the fact that it was not just an accident, but an outcome shaped by long-term neglect and inequality, writes @tingguowrites.bsky.social.
This Thursday, join us for the final webinar in our series on online gender-based violence in China. This session turns to the global stage, looking at how journalists, activists, and policymakers around the world are responding. Register here: globalchinalab.org/confronting-...
December 10, 2025 at 12:13 AM
This Thursday, join us for the final webinar in our series on online gender-based violence in China. This session turns to the global stage, looking at how journalists, activists, and policymakers around the world are responding. Register here: globalchinalab.org/confronting-...
In this piece originally published in @initiummedia.bsky.social and translated by Yiwen Liu, Lee Wai Kwan describes how, in the wake of the HK fire, strangers came together through grassroots relief efforts to contribute their time and talents, before the authorities imposed their own bureaucracy.
The Fire of the Century | Made in China Journal
Editors’ introduction: The following piece, written by Lee Wai Kwan and translated by Yiwen Liu, originally appeared in Initium Media on 28 November 2025. In republishing it here in the Made in China ...
madeinchinajournal.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
In this piece originally published in @initiummedia.bsky.social and translated by Yiwen Liu, Lee Wai Kwan describes how, in the wake of the HK fire, strangers came together through grassroots relief efforts to contribute their time and talents, before the authorities imposed their own bureaucracy.
||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.