The SupChina Signal is a weekly deep-dive that presents accurate and accessible information on China-related topics that every global citizen should be informed about. Together, the Signals will form a digital library that decodes China’s past, present, and future for a general English-speaking audience.
The gaokao: The grueling test that makes (or breaks) Chinese youth
By Megan Zhang | June 18, 2020China’s college entrance exam can propel young people to prosperity — or dismantle their...
China’s mental health care is improving, but stigma and politics still get in the way
Once deemed a symptom of “wrong” political thinking, mental illness has a fraught history in the People’s Republic...
Poetry and protest: That other Tiananmen incident
One of the most common forms of expression used by visitors to the square in April 1976 was the composition of original ...
The life and work of Jia Zhangke, Chinese auteur
Jia Zhangke belongs to a generation of Chinese filmmakers who became disillusioned with big-budget productions that avoi...
A brief history of the qipao: China’s sexiest dress
The qipao (also known as a cheongsam) is a traditional garment that has recently, for better or for worse, experienced a...
A Chinese scholar at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
In the early part of the previous century, China and its people were ravenous for ideas from outside their borders. One ...
Why does China admire the Jews?
The stereotypes can be traced back to the late-19th and early-20th century, as a result of Christian missionaries in Chi...
China’s poverty-shaming social assistance system and the urgent need for reform
China boasts the largest social assistance system in the world by number of beneficiaries. In theory, this guarantees a ...
Who are the 15 arrested Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders?
On April 18, Hong Kong police arrested 15 well-known pro-democracy leaders for their roles in allegedly organizing and p...
When Tang Dynasty poetry ruled the world
The Tang Dynasty (618-907) is the golden age of both China and its poetry. And not just that — there is probably no ti...
Baijiu: Everything you need to know about China’s national liquor
By Derek Sandhaus | April 8, 2020 Image by Denis Freitas, courtesy of DrinkBaijiu.com Baijiu has been called many...
Sexism and gender stereotyping in Chinese advertising
While Chinese women have undeniably acquired greater decision-making power in both their households and the markets in t...
All the international brands that have apologized to China
The definitive list of international companies that have issued apologies to maintain their market access in China in re...
Why Chinese people don’t hate their government
It may seem counterintuitive to many Westerners, but many Chinese people, including — and perhaps especially — young...
The NBA’s operations in China, explained
The NBA is wildly popular in China, with about 800 million Chinese watching games last season, and many basketball playe...
What is WeChat? The super-app you can’t live without in China
If there is one thing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wishes he could create, and will never be able to acquire or repl...
The ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ debate: Are China’s loans predatory?
China has poured mountains of cash into infrastructure projects abroad, leading smaller countries to worry about exploit...
America can learn from China’s amazing high-speed rail network
China is already halfway to a high-speed rail future, where taking the train is the easy option and flying is the second...
China’s cigarette smoking epidemic
Nearly one in three smokers in the world is Chinese. In 2018, there were nearly 800,000 new cases of lung cancer diagnos...
The problems with giving it all away: Philanthropy in China
The rapid rise of charitable giving in China is reshaping the relationship between the private sector and society. In 20...
Inside China’s ever-evolving censorship apparatus
Like many things within China, the country’s notorious censorship system is opaque. The government describes censorshi...
China’s ‘social re-engineering’ of Uyghurs, explained by Darren Byler
Mass internment in concentration camps, forced labor, parent-child separation: These are just a few of the realities of ...
How China regulates foreign non-governmental organizations
The many, many hoops that foreign groups have to jump through to operate in China — and why Beijing changed the laws i...
China’s gaming industry, explained
By Jiayun Feng | July 31, 2019 While China is set to lose the crown of the world's largest gaming market to the U.S....
What is the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and what does it mean for U.S.-China relations?
In the quiet hours just after the U.S. markets closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 27, President Trump ended...
China and Hollywood: Is the romance over?
By Jiayun Feng | December 12, 2019 Illustration by Derek Zheng It would be an understatement to say that 2016 was a...
China vs. the U.S. Treasury: Why Beijing won’t use the ‘nuclear option’ of selling American debt
Why China won’t sell its U.S. debt holdings, even with the trade war in its second year. Plus, the related issue of Ch...
2020 U.S. presidential election China tracker
Where do the Democratic candidates for president stand on China? How would they approach U.S.-China relations differentl...