In a bitter twist of history, China—once infamous for punishing families who had more than one child—is now offering the equivalent of $500 a year to coax young adults into having babies. It’s a staggering policy reversal, but one that’s too little, too late for many of the very people the government is now trying Read More
Category: China
What China’s Declining Birth Rate Means for the Future of Families
In the last few months, headlines have been quietly warning us: China’s birth rate is in freefall. For the second year in a row, the population has shrunk. And while policy changes have encouraged families to have more children, many are not responding. As someone who lived in China for over a decade—and as an Read More
The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama
Book Review: The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama continues the quiet, powerful journey of Pei, first introduced in Women of the Silk. Now an adult, Pei leaves war-torn China and arrives in Hong Kong, where she must rebuild her life from the fragments of the past — Read More
Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
Book Review: Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama offers a beautifully rendered portrait of a hidden world — the community of women who worked in China’s silk factories during the early 20th century. With lyrical prose and quiet emotional power, Tsukiyama explores the lives of women bound Read More
The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
Book Review: The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama is a quiet, meditative novel that explores healing, identity, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. Set against the backdrop of World War II-era Japan and China, the story unfolds not through battle or politics, but through the introspective journey Read More
The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama
Book Review: The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama In The Brightest Star, Gail Tsukiyama shines a long-overdue spotlight on the life of Anna May Wong — the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood — in a novel that is both a lyrical character study and a poignant exploration of identity, ambition, and resilience. Born Read More
Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong
Book Review: Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong is a stunning, high-stakes conclusion to Gong’s Secret Shanghai duology — a political thriller wrapped in romance, rebellion, and reckoning. Picking up where Foul Lady Fortune left off, this installment catapults Rosalind Lang and her allies into a whirlwind of espionage, Read More
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong
Book Review: Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong launches a bold and exhilarating spin-off to her These Violent Delights duology, expanding her fictional 1930s Shanghai into a richly layered world of spies, secrets, and simmering political unrest. Both a standalone and a continuation, this novel is a masterful blend Read More
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
Book Review: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong delivers a breathtaking conclusion to her These Violent Delights duology — a sequel that is sharper, darker, and even more emotionally devastating than the first. Set against the backdrop of a fractured Shanghai descending into political chaos, the novel picks up Read More
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
Book Review: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong is a bold, imaginative reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, set in 1920s Shanghai — a city teetering on the edge of chaos, where politics, power, and a mysterious contagion collide. In her dazzling debut, Gong delivers a story that blends historical Read More