Fresh explainers, culture news, practical guides, and evergreen stories for readers who want to understand China with context.
Walk into any traditional Chinese home, hospital, or mountain temple and you will meet Taoism without ever hearing its name. A doctor prescribes herbal medicine that balances hot and cold. …
You have seen it a thousand times — the black-and-white swirl, the two dots, the circle divided into equal halves. The yin yang symbol is one of the …
You have probably heard of feng shui (风水, fēngshuǐ), the ancient Chinese practice of arranging your environment to attract good energy. But what does …
Walk into a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, a feng shui consultant’s office, or a Chinese restaurant with good design, and you will …
Confucianism (儒家, Rú Jiā) is not a religion in the Western sense. There is no god, no afterlife with rewards and punishments, no scripture that must …
You arrive at Ritan Park in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. About forty people are already moving in a slow circle to soft zither music. A woman in her seventies …
You spot a yin-yang sticker on a laptop bag, or a tiny taijitu pendant in a souvenir shop, and the vendor tells you it means “good and evil in …