history

AI ‘Ghostbots’ Update China’s Relationship With the Dead

Contributions from individuals with unique perspectives to share. Hear from everyone, from experts and commentators to those whose voices are often marginalized.

VOICES & OPINION

Talking to an AI version of a late lost one is not so different from the photos and other mementoes people have always cherished.

Lin Bibo

Cultural Resistance: China’s Other War During the Japanese Invasion

Amid 14 years of invasion and upheaval, China’s artists, writers, and filmmakers used their work to preserve identity, inspire unity, and fight back.

Wu Haiyun

The Underground WWII Effort to Save China’s Books

When Japan fully invaded China in 1937, the country was thrown into chaos for the next eight years. Throughout it all, a group of Shanghai intellectuals fought to keep China’s historic tomes from disappearing.

Wu Zhen

When the Lens Turned Left: Cinema in Resistance-Era China

As cinema evolved from silent-era drama to a key front in China’s fight against Japanese aggression, filmmakers turned class struggle, social injustice, and war into stories that rallied a nation.

Wang  Peilei

Wartime Woodcuts: The Art That Helped China Fight Japan

Easy reproducibility and striking visuals made woodcut printing China’s main art form during WWII.

Huang Wei

From Cinema to Tian’anmen: How China Got Its National Anthem

‘March of the Volunteers’ was initially the theme song to a 1935 movie about fighting the Japanese.

Wu  Haiyong

The ‘Archeologists’ Unearthing China’s Pre-Digital Fonts

Movable type printing techniques filled the interlude between woodblock carving and digital publishing. Now, enthusiasts are bringing it back.

Liu Yuli

The Ancient Secrets Buried in Jade

Over the years, Chinese archaeologists have uncovered new jade relics that may shed light on the dawn of Chinese civilization itself.

The Scholars Helping to Keep WWII Sex Slavery From Being Forgotten

Your questions, answered. In-depth interviews with the minds and makers shaping today’s China.

Q & A

Ahead of this year’s International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, Sixth Tone sat down with Su Zhiliang to learn more about the system behind the wartime atrocity — and the future of its research as the number of surviving victims dwindles.

The Chinese Architect Who Brought Art Deco to Shanghai

Art Deco made its way from Paris to Shanghai in the 1920s, and forever changed the city.

Why China’s Master of Ancient Armor Hasn’t Given Up the Fight 

Archaeologist Bai Rongjin is 90 years old and still going strong.

300,000-Year-Old Tools in China Show Early Humans Dug for Plants

Timely reports on issues and events from across China. Drawing on a vast range of sources, these succinct articles provide insights into the significance of each issue in a wider context.

NEWS

A team of Chinese scientists has discovered wooden tools in Yunnan province dating back approximately 300,000 years, shedding light on how early humans dug for plant-based foods.

Fan Yiying

In Shanghai, a New Photo Exhibit Revisits the Flying Tigers Era

Visual stories that get up close and personal with contemporary China. A mix of short videos, documentaries, photography, and data visualization.

MULTIMEDIA

Photos and personal stories explore an alliance forged during World War II.

Sixth Tone

The Last Stop Club: The Young Chinese Giving Buses a Proper Goodbye

Articles that cut to the core of contemporary China. In-depth, informed, and carefully crafted, every piece is carried by the voices of the story’s participants.

FEATURES

A niche community of bus enthusiasts is documenting final rides, recording engine sounds, and preserving memories of a transit era disappearing under a rapid shift to EVs.

Jiang Xinyi

What’s in a Garden?

A new exhibition explores the meaning of gardens, from ancient China to Renaissance Italy.

Guo Xinyue

The Mother Line: Oldest Matrilineal Society Unearthed in China

An archeological site in Shandong province has provided evidence of a matrilineal society dating back to 2750 to 2500 BC, shattering previous assumptions.

Ding Rui

The Lost Art of Chinese Purple

SPECIAL PROJECTS

The nearly 3,000-year-old synthetic pigment’s invention has long been a mystery. Now, archaeologists think they’ve finally cracked the code.

Dot Dot Dot: What the Last Ever Telegrams From Hangzhou Say

As one of China’s last telegraph stations prepared to shut down, thousands lined up to say goodbye — in ink, by hand, one word at a time.

Chen Yiru

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: How the Perm Styled Shanghai

Translations, cross-publications, and collaborative projects from Sixth Tone’s external partners. 

SIXTH TONE ×

Over its 100-year history in China, the often-maligned hairstyle has gone in and out of fashion amid warfare, gender politics, and cultural shifts.