Ivan Franceschini

Queer China | Made in China Journal Across the world, debates around gender and sexuality have become closely tied to questions of belonging, citizenship, and moral order. In China, these issues have taken on particular urgency as the s...

The new issue of the Made in China Journal is out! This time we explore how queerness offers a lens for understanding contemporary Chinese society, as state visions of family and citizenship collide with diverse lived realities and unevenly translated global LGBTQIA+ discourses.

Performing the Rabbit God | Made in China Journal This essay examines how the classical Chinese story of the Rabbit God has been reinterpreted in the global Chinese diaspora in recent years. Using the examples of Andrew Thomas Huang’s 2019 film The K...

In this essay, @queercomrades.bsky.social explores how the classical Chinese story of the Rabbit God has been reinterpreted across the global Chinese diaspora in recent years, highlighting creative reimaginings that promote an open and undogmatic vision of queer Chinese identity and heritage.

Queer Festival Troubles | Made in China Journal This essay explores the resilience of the Beijing Queer Film Festival (BJQFF) amid intensified cultural regulation and LGBTQIA+ repression in China. Using insider ethnography and recent scholarship, i...

In this essay, Jenny Man Wu examines how the Beijing Queer Film Festival has endured amid intensifying cultural regulation and LGBTQ+ repression in China, arguing that its survival rests on adaptive organising, guerrilla tactics, decentralisation, and a minoritarian ethic of care.

Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration | Made in China Journal Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration: Experiences of Ethnic Performers in Southwest China (Bristol University Press, 2024) offers a compelling account of the intimate experiences of Chinese migran...

In 'Intimacy as a Lens on Work and Migration', Jingyu Mao offers a compelling account of the intimate experiences of Chinese migrant workers engaged in ethnic performance at restaurants and tourist sites in southwest China. Read the conversation with Hongkun Wang.

Engineers, Lawyers, and the Costs of ‘Building’ | Made in China Journal Today there are two great peoples on earth who, starting from different points, seem to advance toward the same goal … —Alexis de Tocqueville (2012: 655)   In 1919, after visiting Bolshevik Russia, th...

In his acclaimed 'Breakneck', Dan Wang frames China as a fast-moving technocratic 'engineering state' and the US as a rule-bound 'lawyerly society'. In this review, Clark Aoqi Wu argues the contrast is overly simplistic, substituting a memorable slogan for historical explanation.

When Heteropatriarchy Turns You On A tenacious heteropatriarchal logic of gender normativity continues to script the behaviour of Chinese gay men. It was a decade ago when Tiantian Zheng (2015) made the anthropological observation that...

Why do Chinese gay men eroticise the heteropatriarchal masculinity that oppresses them? Examining online S&M subcultures centred on the worship of straight-acting men, Bingchang Sun challenges interpretations that frame these practices solely as abjection or resistance.

Rectifying Names, Erasing Mongols: The Unmaking of Mongolian Education in China On a clear October morning in 2025, two massive cranes rolled up to a middle school in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Workers prised off the large Chinese and Mongolian signs running along the ...

In this essay, @jleibold.bsky.social and Soyonbo Borjgin expose the systematic dismantling of Mongolian-medium schooling in Inner Mongolia and argue that changing school names from Mongolian into Chinese constitutes one of the final acts in cancelling once-promised autonomy and sovereignty.

Forever Hong Kong: A Conversation with Ching Kwan Lee Six years after the spectacular ‘Be Water’ rebellion that rippled across national borders, Forever Hong Kong asks: What historical conditions and precedents precipitated the citywide revolt in 2019? H...

Six years after the ‘Be Water’ rebellion, in 'Forever Hong Kong' Ching Kwan Lee interrogates the historical conditions and precedents that precipitated the 2019 revolt, reinterpreting Hongkongers’ political resistance as acts of decolonial defiance. A conversation with @sharonyamsy.bsky.social.

Gendered Organisation of Platform Food Delivery Work in China ‘Our motto is —’, the supervisor chanted. ‘Meituan Delivery, punctual and helpful [美团配送, 准时好用]!’, dozens of drivers responded in unison. At 9.30 am, drivers assembled for a roll call under a bridge ne...

How does food delivery become masculinised? Zihao Zhang and Jenny Chan show how managers recruit and discipline riders through gendered ideas of masculinity, rewarding a few 'successful' breadwinners while casting others as less worthy men. A look at gender, labour, and the gig economy in China.

Excavating a History Already Found A carved stone discovered in Qinghai Province in 2020 drew wide attention in June 2025 when a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences proposed that it was an inscription from the reign of...

From imperial ritual through Maoist dialectics to Xi-era heritage politics, in this essay @tristangbrown.bsky.social explores how China’s heritage bureaucracy has turned archaeology into a language of governance, transforming artefacts into symbols of civilisational continuity and state authority.

Monroe Doctrine Redux: New Americanism and the Echoes of Empire in China and Japan | Made in China Journal The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation—one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and b...

As the Monroe Doctrine resurfaces through US military action in Venezuela, Craig Smith looks back to the 20th century to show how, in periods of imperial expansion, Pan-American and Asianist discourses flowed in both directions across the Pacific, not only echoing but also reinforcing one another.

Mauritius - The People's Map of Global China Since the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 1972, China and Mauritius have generally maintained a stable and cooperative relationship. While Mauritius has not formally joined the Belt an...

|| NEW PROFILE || Although Mauritius has not formally joined the Belt and Road Initiative, its close trade and investment ties with Beijing have prompted scholars and the press to question the motivations and impacts of China’s growing presence in the country, writes Sheng Xuan.

Queer Chimerica | Made in China Journal Blending archival work, ethnography, and cultural analysis with memoir, graphic art, and science fiction, Shana Ye’s Queer Chimerica: A Speculative Auto/Ethnography of the Cool Child (University of Mi...

Blending archival research, ethnography, and cultural analysis with memoir, graphic art, and science fiction, Shana Ye’s 'Queer Chimerica' explores how queer culture, politics, and institutions circulate through the antagonistic interdependence of China and the US. A conversation with Qing Shen.

What Is the Purpose of ‘China-Watching’ in the United States Today? The executive ignored widespread dissent to force through an illiberal agenda. Violent confrontations between protesters and police brought forth increased repression. In less than a year, new policie...

The American China Studies field is facing an existential threat under the Trump administration. To protect its integrity, we should infuse our work with a critical, comparative, and intersectional analysis of authoritarianism in the United States and China, argues @arthurkaufman.bsky.social.

The Distance Between Us | Made in China Journal A week after the devastating fire that claimed at least 159 lives in Hong Kong on 26 November, people were still queuing daily for hours until after midnight to join the mourning. As flowers, gifts, a...

When the Hong Kong fire occurred, initial international media coverage focused on bamboo scaffolding. This Orientalised and exoticised the tragedy, obscuring the fact that it was not just an accident, but an outcome shaped by long-term neglect and inequality, writes @tingguowrites.bsky.social.

This Thursday, join us for the final webinar in our series on online gender-based violence in China. This session turns to the global stage, looking at how journalists, activists, and policymakers around the world are responding. Register here: globalchinalab.org/confronting-...

The Fire of the Century | Made in China Journal Editors’ introduction: The following piece, written by Lee Wai Kwan and translated by Yiwen Liu, originally appeared in Initium Media on 28 November 2025. In republishing it here in the Made in China ...

In this piece originally published in @initiummedia.bsky.social and translated by Yiwen Liu, Lee Wai Kwan describes how, in the wake of the HK fire, strangers came together through grassroots relief efforts to contribute their time and talents, before the authorities imposed their own bureaucracy.

Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone - The People's Map of Global China The Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (SDZ) is China’s only national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos. Established through a ‘land-for-funding’ arrangement, it was develop...

||NEW PROFILE|| The Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone is China’s only national-level economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos. Framed as a low-carbon demonstration zone, the SDZ nonetheless faces persistent challenges related to labour, land, and the environment, write Ellen Li and Juliet Lu.

Political Depression and China’s Foreign Student Programs, 1950–1966 | Made in China Journal China’s foreign student programs, many initiated under the banner of the unity of socialist countries and Afro-Asian solidarity, were originally designed to project international recognition of the ne...

How did China’s early foreign student programs balance socialist solidarity with a climate of surveillance and distrust? In this essay, Yimei Liu traces how foreign students in the early PRC navigated state-managed hospitality, restricted mobility, and pervasive monitoring.

Confronting Online Gender-Based Violence in China: Voices, Vulnerabilities, and Global Solidarity - Global China Lab Join us for a three-part webinar series organised by the Global China Lab and the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne as

||EVENT|| Join us this Thursday for the second webinar in our series on online gender-based violence in China. This session will shine a light on groups whose experiences are often pushed further into invisibility, especially LGBTQ+ individuals and women with disabilities. Registration is essential.

Episode 6 | Hong Kong in Protest, Redux In 2019, more than a million people poured onto the streets of Hong Kong, with many returning week after week. The song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ soon emerged as the movement’s unofficial anthem. What bega...

|| NEW EPISODE || Six years after Hong Kong’s mass protests, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social talks with sociologist Ching Kwan Lee and historian @jwassers.bsky.social about the struggle’s enduring significance, its transnational afterlives, and what it teaches us amid today’s democratic backsliding.

Madagascar - The People's Map of Global China Chinese migration to Madagascar began more than a century ago and the new arrivals evolved into a deeply integrated community. However, bilateral ties have experienced ebbs and flows, with China’s ima...

|| NEW PROFILE || Chinese migration to Madagascar began more than a century ago and the new arrivals evolved into a deeply integrated community. However, bilateral ties have experienced ebbs and flows, with China’s image in the country impacted by recent controversies, writes Xuefei Shi.

Don’t miss the first in our three-part webinar series on online gender-based violence in China, happening this Thursday. The event will be held in English and Chinese, with simultaneous interpretation. Register and help us spread the word:
globalchinalab.org/confronting-...

Pathways to Empowered Motherhood in Contemporary China An essay on how pregnant women in China negotiate empowerment, balancing support, autonomy, and resistance to patriarchal norms.

How do pregnant women in China navigate empowerment amid shifting gender norms? Mingxuan Li and Anna Lora-Wainwright show how women challenge patriarchal expectations through two intertwined strategies: seeking greater support from partners and asserting autonomy to protect their own agency.

Scale Is Not a System: Learning from China without Mimicry A reply to Kaiser Kuo that weighs China’s achievements against the limits of performance legitimacy and the value of democratic institutions.

China’s achievements at scale are undeniable—but scale is not system. Responding to @kaiserkuo.bsky.social’s call to judge by delivery, @messingschlager.bsky.social argues that durable performance depends on independent measurement, contestable feedback, and system integration, not size alone.

MaskPark and the Silence around China’s Gender-Based Violence Online | Made in China Journal When the MaskPark incident broke in mid-2025, it jolted the Chinese internet (Hawkins 2025). Hidden behind the encrypted walls of Telegram—a platform officially blocked in China but accessible through...

When the MaskPark case broke on China’s internet, it exposed a vast online trade in non-consensual images of women. As censorship buried the story, victims were left to navigate trauma, stigma, and official neglect on their own. Ling Li reflects on what this says on gendered violence in China today.

Queer-Feminist Journeys as Critical Counter-Frame Queer Chinese diaspora in C. Pam Zhang’s novels, with a focus on trauma, counter-narratives, pleasure, and global responsibility.

In her work, C. Pam Zhang explores Chinese diasporic subjectivities across shifting temporal and geographic terrains. Adopting a queer counter-perspective, she unsettles racist, classist, and heteronormative narratives of ‘Chineseness’, ‘manhood’, and ‘womanhood’, writes Kimiko Suda.

A Grey Beard in the Silver-Hair Market: One Month in China’s Retirement City Laoye left Louisiana like an outlaw cowboy, abandoning all his earthly possessions, and hitting the road. The flat-screen TVs, the piles of clothes, the closet full of USB cords? No longer needed. Jus...

Drawing on one month of residence in a retirement community outside Beijing, Brian DeMare examines the Chinese silver-hair market, tracing everyday experiences of retirees and highlighting the interplay between personal memories of PRC history and the commodification of elder care in today's China.

Episode 5 | Labour and (De)Industrialisation in East Asia | Made in China Journal Over the past few years, industrial policy and manufacturing capacity, especially in the high-tech sector, have been at the centre of great power rivalry between the United States and China. The White...

Why did Western firms move manufacturing to East Asia? Who are the workers behind the region's industrial rise, and what are the social costs? For our podcast, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social spoke with Anru Lee and Ya-Wen Lei on gender, labour, and (de)industrialisation in China and Taiwan.