LIFE

Forgotten Fun: Remembering Rural Chinese Children’s Games

From nail-polish flowers to mud crackers, improvisation was key in the countryside where Chinese children’s games and fun often came in the form of random scrap or things provided by nature.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
FEMINISM

For Land’s Sake: The Women Fighting to Keep Hold of Their Rural Land

Struggling against sexist notions, married women try to hold on to their land rights

SOCIETY

How Quarantine Made Me Fall In Love With the Countryside

A six-month stay in a Chinese village helped a family return to their roots

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FOOD

Larder Than Life: Pork Fat With Rice Brings Memories of a Bygone Era

A taste of opulence that supported generations of Chinese through an age of scarcity

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
SOCIETY

Data Farming: How Digitalization is Changing China’s Villages

Can “digital villages” fulfill their promise to modernize the countryside through technology?

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
FILM

Left in the Dust: Shaking Rural Cliches in Films on Northwest China

Can films and literature from the Northwest shake their strong association with rural subjects?

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
SOCIETY

Protecting the Rice Bowl: China’s Relentless Quest for Food Security

With Covid-19 affecting domestic farming and global food supplies, can China ever reach its goal of food security?

NEWS

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Rural Banks?

Rural banks were supposed to help farmers make a living and remote areas develop. How did they become so problematic?

MODERN HISTORY

The Legendary Century-Long Life of a Leprosy Patient, Part 1

From wandering the streets to living in a leprosy colony, an ordinary 93-year-old woman recounts an extraordinary century of life

MODERN HISTORY

The Legendary Century-Long Life of a Leprosy Patient, Part 2

Read the second part of the story of Xu He as she leaves the leprosy village—and find out why she comes back

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