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The DNA from Three Kingdoms

Feature | Culture and history
2010-2-1

THE game is afoot, the hunt is on, the mystery is unfolding about one of China's greatest and most ruthless warlords, the notorious Cao Cao from the Three Kingdoms Period (AD 208-280). For years, no one knew the...

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Monks, money and mouses

Feature | Culture and history
2010-1-23

THE material world encroaches on one Tibetan monastery in Qinghai Province where young monks surf the Net and record teachers on MP3. Older monks suggest they're getting lost on the path to nirvana. Zhou Yan and Lu...

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Grandma's famous dumplings, peasant Picassos and games

Feature | Culture and history
2010-1-9

LI Juguan is a farm wife celebrity cook, using a huge old wood-fired stove and oven to turn out country cooking for visitors, some who travel all the way from downtown Shanghai for Grandma Li's cooking. Li and...

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Recalling the man who opened China's classics to the West

Feature | Culture and history
2009-11-30

THE man who translated "A Dream of Red Mansions" into its classic English text (1974) is being mourned as a distinguished intellectual who made it his life's work to introduce great Chinese literature to the English-speaking...

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Surprising Shenzhen: It's more than glitz, it's going green

Feature | Culture and history
2009-11-21

THIRTY years ago Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province, was a dreary, frontier village off limits to ordinary Chinese because it borders Hong Kong, then a British colony. An old friend of mine, distraught...

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In search of a 'Made in China' china that's really smashing

Feature | Culture and history
2009-11-6

WHAT'S the dish on China? A major ceramics fair "China Unlimited" opens today at ShanghaiMart. It asks why China these days isn't making world-famous china. Wang Jie is fired up. You'd think that China, the cradle...

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New look for old Nanjing: glitz, history and some Xintiandi

Feature | Culture and history
2009-10-24

ALL those interested in Chinese history should look toward Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province. As the capital of four dynasties, its streets contain historical architecture from almost every important era. ...

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Tales of the men who found the terra-cotta warriors and horses

Feature | Culture and history
2009-10-21

THIRTY-FIVE years ago farmers digging a well came upon fragments of the terra-cotta warriors. Archeologists arrived. So did fame, rivalry and money. Yu Fei reports. Wearing a traditional Chinese-style beige shirt...

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Grand Canal seeks rightful place as UNESCO heritage site

Feature | Culture and history
2009-10-13

GRANDMA Yang shows up at her courtyard gate as usual, a basket of vegetables across her arm. Sitting on a stool, she starts preparing lunch, cutting vegetables piece by piece and washing each bundle in several basins...

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Country roads, take me home

Feature | Culture and history
2009-9-22

FORTY years ago, Red Guard Zhang Fen was among 17 million zhiqing or intellectual youth sent down to the countryside to learn from the peasants. Today she's still there, it's home. Lin Jiangyang visits. The most...

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Canada: How the Chinese helped build a nation

Feature | Culture and history
2009-9-19

THANKS to 78-year-old Lily Chow, the roles played by early immigrants in the development of modern Canada are gaining wider recognition, writes Ma Dan. Almost a century and half ago, Chinese laborers began to travel...

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Argentina throws a party

Feature | Culture and history
2009-9-19

ARGENTINA is well-known among Chinese people for its football and the tango. Passion and exuberance are two words usually used to define its people and nature. However, the country has more to offer than sporting...

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Anglo-gothic gem

Feature | Culture and history
2009-9-2

AS the World Expo Shanghai draws near, the rush is on to preserve the city's architectural heritage. Once horribly "modernized" and renovated, the old Shanghai University of Science and Technology in Yangpu District...

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Veterans of the's good

Feature | Culture and history
2009-8-31

THE Shangyangshi Community in Shangcheng District, one of the oldest areas in southern Hangzhou, has a unique claim to fame. It was there, reports Tan Weiyun, that the first residential committee of the New China was...

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The Bund takes a starring role in documentaries for Expo 2010

Feature | Culture and history
2009-8-13

THE Bund, famous across the world for its multinational architecture style, is considered a symbol of Shanghai and a must-see for visitors to the city. The landmark will be again in the spotlight as a charismatic...