Chinese News Worth Reading (A Search)

[艾墨本]

I've been looking for Chinese language news that is actually worth reading. I want something that is written well but doesn't overdo the technical language. I'm interested in current affairs and technology. But, so long as the stories are well written, I enjoy most any topics. The goal is to stay informed while also practicing reading Chinese.

 

Here's all the news sites I've checked previously:

 

CCTV/all the other party news papers: skimps on meaningful content

Sina: no better then CCTV

Jiemian: This was a new find but utterly bummed to find stories that say the same thing in three different ways in three different paragraphs. Interesting content, but low quality writing.

Initium: really great writing and interesting topics but find it a bit difficult for daily news

Baidu: takes way too long to find actually news buried under stories of some girl's bra falling off or other click-bait topic

NYT: I like their content but have been told a few times that is is very "english" Chinese

虎嗅网 : They seemed alright at first but found too much to be just clickbait stuff. It's the best I've found at the moment but would like something better.

澎湃: I do use their site from time to time and find it to be alright. I like their English site (with very different content) Sixthtone.

Chinese Gizmodo/engadget: I still check from time to time and do find some stuff but not much.

WeChat feeds: I have a lot that I like here but it just isn't my prefered mode of reading news. I'd prefer a full website.

 

That about sums it up.

 

 

[Shelley]

What about this - https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp

[Luxi]

2 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

I've been looking for Chinese language news that is actually worth reading.

 

PRC no longer allows independent news reporting, no surprise then to see the same news presented with the same words and cliches everywhere. The one I find most readable is  'The Paper' from Shanghai

https://www.thepaper.cn/

There is a good variety of topics including many cultural news, the writing is good 汉语, some articles are surprisingly free of official claptrap, and it's generally free of 'girlies' and idiotic animations.

 

I recently discovered Tianya, from Hainan. It's like a general current affairs  portal and forum, very rich in content and much more mature than Weibo, Sina and similar. I very much like the posts/discussions on classic literature - I could be there forever.

http://bbs.tianya.cn/

 

For independent news I go to The South China Morning Post (International Edition).

Edited to add: https://www.scmp.com/frontpage/international

Being lazy, I read it in English, I'm sure there's a Hanzi version somewhere. Another bilingual newspaper with good journalism and well-written articles is the Financial Times Chinese, very good for studying translation (also a chance to read the FT without having to pay)

http://www.ftchinese.com/

 

As a source of independent Chinese news, I think Kaiser Kuo & Jeremy Goldkorn's Supchina is invaluable (there are some amazing articles and it comes with the Sinica Podcast included). It is in English, which comes as a relief if you've spent hours deciphering The Paper and want to give your brain a rest - also there source Chinese material is referenced.

https://supchina.com/

[mungouk]

14 minutes ago, Luxi said:

South China Morning Post (International Edition)

 

AFAIK this is an English language newspaper only (HK), and since it was bought by Jack Ma most folk seem to be saying it's starting to toe the Beijing party line a lot more. I read it too though.

 

+1 as well for Supchina (here's Thursday's edition), again, in English, but featuring very heavy linking to Chinese content and it's well-curated.

 

Also Bill Bishop's writing in Axios China. 

 

 

[Tomsima]

I read https://www.dw.com/zh/在线报导/s-9058?&zhongwen=trad on a regular basis. Its pretty straightforward news stuff through a german filter as it were, but it does the job better than voa/bbc if you ask me. The writing is international/TW style, so I quite like it as an always-been-on-the-mainland student for the variety.

 

FT is on my bookmarks, it really is good. But I just cant sit down and force myself to 'enjoy' it, its like the opposite of clickbait....

[Jim]

Bits of Caijing are still worth a read; I once translated for a journo who is now their Washington correspondent and see her columns when she cross-posts to WeChat and they're usually insightful on stuff like the current trade stand-off.

[Luxi]

2 hours ago, Jim said:

Bits of Caijing are still worth a read

 

Thanks for the reminder, I'd completely forgotten about Caixin  (its current name). It used to have a good degree of independence, I hope it still does. I haven't really followed it since the apps went behind a paywall, but I may start reading it again. This is the website (it has an English version too) 

http://www.caixin.com/?HOLDZH

At least one can get some bits before hitting the rather expensive paywall.

[i__forget]

What about http://news.sina.com.cn/world/ ?

[艾墨本]

5 hours ago, Luxi said:

 

8 hours ago, Jim said:

Bits of Caijing are still worth a read

 

Thanks for the reminder, I'd completely forgotten about Caixin  (its current name). It used to have a good degree of independence, I hope it still does. I haven't really followed it since the apps went behind a paywall, but I may start reading it again. This is the website (it has an English version too) 

http://www.caixin.com/?HOLDZH

At least one can get some bits before hitting the rather expensive paywall.

 

 

Caixin and Caijing are separate companies. I read Caixin for awhile in English because a friend worked there but she had nothing good to say about the quality of writing on the Chinese side.

 

9 hours ago, Tomsima said:

 

I read https://www.dw.com/zh/在线报导/s-9058?&zhongwen=trad on a regular basis. Its pretty straightforward news stuff through a german filter as it were, but it does the job better than voa/bbc if you ask me. The writing is international/TW style, so I quite like it as an always-been-on-the-mainland student for the variety.

 

FT is on my bookmarks, it really is good. But I just cant sit down and force myself to 'enjoy' it, its like the opposite of clickbait....

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion! I’m checking it out now.

 

5 hours ago, i__forget said:

What about http://news.sina.com.cn/world/ ?

You’ll notice Sina is second on my list of news sources I’ve check previously. Never found the content “real” enough.

[Jim]

3 minutes ago, 艾墨本 said:

Caixin and Caijing are separate companies. I read Caixin for awhile in English because a friend worked there but she had nothing good to say about the quality of writing on the Chinese side.

Link will be a result of a lazy search, I'll check which one she works for, think it's Caijing.

[Luxi]

9 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

Caixin and Caijing are separate companies.

 

So they are! I thought Caijing had been dissolved and some of their staff had formed Caixin, obviously I was totally misinformed...Fake news!

[Bibu]

@Luxi not all fake news. The Cajing chief editor resigned and she formed Caixin with some her former colleagues. 

 

After this spin off, I never go neither of them.

[i__forget]

On 8/5/2018 at 2:27 AM, 艾墨本 said:

 

On 8/4/2018 at 9:19 PM, i__forget said:

What about http://news.sina.com.cn/world/ ?

You’ll notice Sina is second on my list of news sources I’ve check previously. Never found the content “real” enough.

I don't know how real it is but it certainly loads very fast in the UK which certainly helps when you are not in China.

[Luxi]

Another very recent discovery:

http://www.creaders.net/

A news site for expat /global Chinese, all the way from Vancouver. I found it accidentally searching for the original text of a short story by a Taiwanese author.

 

I haven't read much yet besides headlines and don't know how reliable or subversive it is, but it looks promising as an alternative source of Chinese news and rumours.

It comes in simplified and traditional characters (button on top left). It also has an English section that doesn't seem to work.  Being rather lazy, I use machine-translation on the front page to skim the titles and select what I'm going to read in Chinese - saves me hours!

[Tomsima]

looks good for reading practice, although the 'comments' section of some of the articles I skimmed seemed rather outspoken in its unanimous support of xi...

[艾墨本]

@Tomsima been reading DW. It’s exactly what I was looking for. It gets a bit dramatic in its writing style but its language, structure and vocabulary are all great for study. Thanks.