Heads • China.Table

Family gathering in the Chinese province. Five men are seated around a table, slightly drunk, waiting for their wives to serve the next dishes. With shot glasses at the ready, they question the youngest: “Fei, do you have a girlfriend yet? Your father has been waiting for a grandchild for a long time,” says one […] continue reading →

“I thought I had done something wrong when the White House called me,” Ryan Hass recalls in an interview with China.Table. But he didn’t. President Obama wanted Hass to join his China team. In the meantime, the diverse experiences of those years have been useful to him in analyzing current developments in relations between China […] continue reading →

A business English course at university had a lasting impact on Sonja Peterson’s career. “In it, our professor taught environmental economics in English because he obviously discovered that topic for himself,” Peterson recalls. “I found that totally fascinating.” She was studying business mathematics in Hamburg at the time, and the connection between the environment and […] continue reading →

Before Nancy Pelosi flew from Taiwan to South Korea on Wednesday afternoon, she met with three high-profile human rights and democracy activists behind closed doors in Taipei: Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookseller who was forced to flee to the island in 2019 due to his political publications; Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese NGO worker who […] continue reading →

On the evening of his 30th birthday, Sascha Pallenberg sits with his best friend and has an emotional fit. He lives in a shared apartment, has three computers under his desk, and lives his life one day at a time. He has no vision and decides: I have to change something. Five days later, he […] continue reading →

Will there be a change of power in China’s leadership in November 2022? Viktoria Laura Herczegh works on questions like these as an analyst at Geopolitical Futures, the geopolitical forecasting publication founded by George Friedman in 2015. On the side, she is writing her Ph.D. in International Relations and Political Science at Corvinus University in […] continue reading →

“Don’t take any drugs,” Chen Tianzhuo urges his 12-member troupe shortly before the big show. But stimulants would certainly be helpful tonight: the “Asian Dope Boys,” as Chen’s art collective is called, want to dance, sing, scream, roll around in mud they’ve scraped together themselves, and perform tribal rituals they’ve invented themselves for a whole […] continue reading →

Chang Weiping 常玮平 has stood up against discrimination of people with HIV and sexual minorities. State power responded by preventing him from practicing, torturing him – and holding a mock trial behind closed doors. In his last video shortly before his arrest, Chang already seemed to sense his fate. “If I lose my freedom again, […] continue reading →

The conference room at the China Forum Bayern is packed with gifts from Chinese delegations. Vases and plates stand next to books on classical painting, and all kinds of patterned ties can be found in between. Managing Director Stefan Geiger jokingly calls the items “beautiful dust catchers.” He is also adept at gift-giving himself, bringing […] continue reading →