English-language dailies, periodicals and books

There has been an explosion of English-language publications in China since the country’s economic reformation began. For several decades China Daily (Zhongguo ribao), run by central government as a propaganda tool, was the country’s only English-language newspaper. Since the mid-to-late 1990s, however, every major city in China has come to have its own English-language newspaper. Most of these are dailies, such as the Guangzhou Morning, the Shenzhen Daily and the Shanghai Daily.

The China Daily itself has also expanded to launch a weekend issue—the Beijing Weekend.

In addition to these English-language newspapers, there are also a range of English-language magazines, such as the Beijing Review, Beijing Monthly and Shanghai Star, and books, such as the Panda Books imprint, which offers translations of Chinese literature into English. Rather than being used for propaganda purposes, these newer English-language publications seem aimed at making Chinese literature, culture and society more accessible to a foreign audience.

In addition, many established Chinese-language newspapers have also now launched special English sections or editions, although these are aimed at an English-speaking Chinese rather than a foreign readership. At first these were intended primarily to help Chinese readers improve their English. Now they act more broadly as a window through which Chinese readers can learn about Western people and culture. One of the earliest and most influential of these is Beijing Youth. Another example is Cankao xiaoxi [Reference News], which began life offering digests of news from foreign news media translated into Chinese but has now launched an English-language version.

LILY CHEN