I am a third-generation of the Third Front Movement. There’s a saying that captures the experience of families like ours: “First we devote our youth, then we devote our whole lives — in the end, even the futures of our children and grandchildren are tied to the cause.”

Sponge gourd soup, a staple in Chinese home cooking, has unexpectedly gone viral online — not for its taste, but as a metaphor for the way parents often dismiss their children’s feelings, as well as gaslighting in familial relationships more generally. Read more: ow.ly/bWv650X03Ns

A fireworks display, designed by artist Cai Guoqiang and commissioned by outdoor brand Arc’teryx, caused outrage over environmental concerns, prompting apologies and an official investigation.

With banquet bookings on the decline and budgets tight, some luxury hotels are selling discounted takeout on the street, betting visibility will bring customers back inside.

Inspired by oysters cementing themselves to ocean rocks and bridge pylons, scientists at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in eastern China’s Zhejiang province have developed what they call the world’s first “bone glue.”

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

In China’s booming immersive tourism industry, “non-playable characters” are thousands of young performers in costume, working marathon shifts of duels and dances to keep tourists entertained.

A couple in southern China’s Guangzhou has been ordered to vacate their rented room after having a child, with top rental platform Ziroom citing a breach of occupancy rules at the shared property that limit tenants to two adults between the ages of 18 and 40.

Empowered by legislation, a growing army of social media activists is waging war against smoking in public.

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.

When East met West in the mid-1800s, no one could understand each other. After a concerted effort between working-class Chinese and early traders, a new language was born, traces of which live on to this day.

As China’s ultrashort TV series find fans in the U.S., bilingual screenwriters are in high demand in Hollywood — it’s just not the dream job they’d imagined.

“My family thinks I’m at work, just like they used to think I was in school.” With tens of thousands of arcades shuttered from decades of policy and changing lifestyles, Xu Shouzhong’s arcade is the last one left in Shenyang, a time capsule for the heady days of youth.

In tribute to her grandparents, artist Wu Wei explores in her work the anguish of loss and the joy of remembrance.

More than two decades after his 3-year-old son was abducted, a Chinese father has won a symbolic civil case against the trafficker sentenced to death, reigniting debate over victims’ rights.

Painkillers for a warlord’s migraines. Train tickets for a legendary statesman who never made it north. And a Labubu doll for the father of modern socialism.

Staff from one of the unlicensed facilities, discovered in May after a tip-off, fled when police arrived, leaving behind medical equipment, drugs, and an unconscious patient on an operating table.

With 16.7 million charging points, China now has the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network — about two chargers for every five EVs.

A decades-old mural of Chinese literary icon Lu Xun holding a cigarette has sparked online debate — and memes — after an anti-smoking activist claimed the image encourages smoking and should be replaced with a clenched fist.

Ten workers are dead and four remain missing after a section of the Jianzha Yellow River Bridge collapsed early Friday during construction on the Sichuan–Qinghai Railway, according to Qinghai’s emergency management authorities.

resh off the global success of ‘Black Myth: Wukong,’ Chinese game studio Game Science has announced its next title: Black Myth: Zhong Kui. The studio released a cinematic teaser on Wednesday but said the project is still in early development.

Amid competition from ultrashort dramas and streaming platforms, China’s broadcasting regulator will also ease restrictions on historical dramas and allow series to air without a one-year gap between new seasons.

China has nearly 30 million single mothers. Now, many are finding support by moving in together, splitting bills, sharing child care, and building households outside the traditional family model.

The four antiheroes of new animated film “Nobody” follow in the footsteps of the cast of “Journey to the West,” striking a chord with the country’s downtrodden workers.

Long before Japan made it iconic, matcha began as a ritual in Song Dynasty China, powdered, whisked, and judged for elegance. Today, China is supplying the world once more.

Driven by social media, more and more urbanites are taking up birdwatching, helping to increase ecological awareness and molding photography trends to their aesthetic preferences in the process.

China has punished 19 officials and revoked the credentials of a trainee doctor at the center of a high-profile nepotism scandal, in a case that has fueled months of public anger over nepotism and corruption in elite hospitals and medical schools. Read more: ow.ly/NIMF50WHz3e

More than 500 robots from 16 countries competed in the first World Humanoid Robot Games, with events ranging from Olympic-style sports to real-world tasks like hotel cleaning and medical sorting. Read more: ow.ly/cfVw50WHiqS

As AI takes over China’s film and TV business, performers are struggling to work within its strict creative parameters — or even make sense of its scripts.

24-year-old Liu Jipiao introduced Art Deco to China after showcasing his work at the 1925 Paris Expo. Blending traditional Chinese symbols like dragons and phoenixes with modern Western design, he created an architectural language that would forever change the city.

In the latest step to protect workers’ rights and the steady job market, China’s top court has pushed to mandate social insurance payments, clarifying that any employment contract that excludes them is invalid.

After an exhaustive four-day search that gripped China’s social media, rescuers in the southwestern Yunnan province have found the body of an 8-year-old boy who went missing during a summer camp outing, intensifying scrutiny of the company that had taken him there.

A new wave of research universities is emerging in China, competing with the country’s traditional top schools via more flexible academic models, promising career and postgraduate study opportunities, and strong government backing.

Few Chinese rappers have successfully adapted American hip-hop while keeping their songs authentically Chinese. Lanlao has, and his songs of small-town hustlers are reaching a global audience.

Over 7,700 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in Guangdong province since the beginning of July, exacerbated by heavy rainfall and thriving mosquito populations. Read more: ow.ly/zPNt50WAxcj

A dark AI‑crafted retelling of the Disney classic by Beijing-based screenwriter Wen Jing has captivated millions on social media, sparking debate over women’s roles in fairy tales and modern society.

Thousands of paralyzed patients are signing up for brain computer interface trials, but only a handful meet strict medical criteria as doctors balance demand with science. “For now, selecting participants is like selecting astronauts,” a doctor told Sixth Tone.

Chinese students dating in the U.K. stop worrying about looking fair-skinned, young, and skinny — only to face the Kardashian beauty standard instead.

Private universities across China are this year slashing admission scores in hopes of filling seats, as high tuition costs and dim job prospects have made students, and their parents, question the value of a private university education.

The open Telegram group, which had over 100,000 members and has since gone private, was used to exchange covert footage of women and children as well as their contact details.

Nicknamed the “CEO Monk,” Shi transformed the Shaolin Temple from a local holy site into a global commercial powerhouse.

Spotted in downtown Shanghai: a humanoid robot directing traffic and guiding pedestrians across a busy crosswalk.

Zhang Shengwu completed a successful dive in his 2-ton, 40,000-yuan homebuilt submarine — one of a new batch of countryside entrepreneurs eligible for government grants.

Six mineral processing students from Northeastern University died during a plant visit in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, after a walkway grate collapsed, plunging them into a 10-meter-deep flotation tank filled with hazardous slurry. (File photo from Weibo)

The boom and bust of big-money football teams left Chinese football fans disappointed. A wildly popular new grassroots competition might be the start of something more sustainable.

Authorities say over 240 children were poisoned by lead-tainted food at Peixin Kindergarten, with school leaders, hospital staff, and regulators all implicated in a widening investigation.

At top film festivals across the country, foreign films often arrive without subtitles. A small team of volunteers, mostly students, makes sure every line lands — manually, and in real time.

Hundreds of children at a private kindergarten in Gansu province have been poisoned by meals laced with industrial lead, prompting arrests, public outrage, and a sweeping investigation into one of the country’s most serious school food safety scandals in recent years. www.sixthtone.com/news/1017323

The growing use of AI in television broadcasting is forcing China’s top journalism schools to reconsider what skills still set human anchors apart.

Sixth Tone is looking for a seasoned, passionate freelance editor.