Dear Readers,

Now releasing our seventh issue of China Hands, we continue to reflect on mission of China Hands and ways in which we can innovate and improve the quality of the publication. As increasing numbers of Chinese students come to the United States and American students engage in China-related discourse, we continue to affirm the belief that the most important insights on China today are being formed by our own generation, and deserve a platform. In all of our submissions, we look for original reporting, personal narratives and rigorous analysis.

This academic year, we have also sought to foster a greater sense of community, a hub of intellectual exchange and discourse. On campus, here at Yale, we have initiated a series of weekly dinners, where board members, writers and friends of the organization come, talk about the magazine and discuss recent general events regarding the broader US-China sphere. We have begun to collaborate with New Haven start-up restaurant Junzi Kitchen, an organization whose vision — reshaping how China is perceived by a global audience — is closely aligned with our own. Outside of Yale, we have continued to consolidate our bureaus across the United States, expanding into Asia, namely Singapore (Yale-NUS College, the National University of Singapore) and France, through our merger with Le Mandarin Magazine.

China Hands has always valued its aesthetic presentation, but this issue, we placed greater emphasis on experimenting with visual modes of storytelling and reportage. Flip through the pages, and you’ll find in our Features section, a personal essay on the experience of being half-Chinese in Xinjiang, and our first photo-essay which seeks to capture the essence of life by Kunming train tracks. Our cover article, a long-form article profiling “Green Turtles — overseas Chinese students studying the environmental sciences — is woven together with original photographs taken by our new photography editor Jennifer Lu.

Our other sections draw from an equally diverse array of topics. In Politics and Diplomacy, we have an in depths investigations into crisis in the South China Sea and analysis on the implications of the recent Taiwanese elections; in Economics and Business, a writer follows Chinese money to Iran and the United States. Our Life and Culture section explores Chinese feminism, soccer and new forms of online slang; and in our Opinion section, we present an op-ed on China’s latest propaganda efforts, an interview with educator and activist Stephen Wilmarth and a book review of One Child by Mei Fong.

We hope you enjoy our issue.

Yours truly,

Yi-Ling Liu, Editor-in-Chief

Jean Young Koo, Editor-in-Chief

Yifu Dong, Managing Editor

Alexander Herkert, Managing Editor

Sherril Wang, Creative Director