TRAVEL

Pigs and Party Games: Celebrating Lunar New Year, Dongbei Style

Folk customs and culture of Northeast China during the Lunar New Year

FILM

How New China’s Movie Industry Began in the Northeast

Changchun Film Studio went from puppet-state propaganda to the beating heart of Chinese film

FOOD

Bones of Industry: Discover Shenyang’s Favorite Street Snack

A simple Dongbei dish symbolizes the rise, fall, and reinvention of a once-flourishing industrial heartland

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
ARTS

Rustbelt Renaissance: China’s Post-Industrial Northeast Rises Again in Film

Why is China’s Northeast such a fertile setting for film, music, and literature?

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
TRAVEL

Where Empires Meet: Lüshun’s Complex Colonial Legacies

Lüshun’s history of colonial entanglement attracts visitors looking for stunning photo backdrops, but its story is difficult to tell

FOOD

“Fire Spoon”: A Lesser-Known Dongbei Treat

These bite-sized beef pastries come with a heroic origin story

SOCIETY

It’s Snow Time: Winter in China’s Northeast

Everyday life in China’s frozen Northeast

TRADITIONAL CULTURE

The Bathing Cultures Dividing North and South China

Northern bathhouses are famous for their vigorous scrubbing, while gentle massages in the South lull bathers to sleep

BOOKS

Anxiety and Opportunism on the Russia-China Border | Book Review

Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey’s “On the Edge” portrays how China’s rise reshaped the reality of the people living just across the river

TRAVEL

The Japanese Temple Left to Rot in Northeast China

In Changchun, Jilin province, a cultural relic remains in disrepair despite decades of attempts at restoration