A System Afraid of Its Own History

China's relationship to its own history remains mired in cover-ups and silences, and a look at how school textbooks present the 60 years since the People's Republic was established reveals the problem.

Joan Hinton, Physicist Who Chose China Over Atom Bomb, Is Dead at 88

Ms. Hinton worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atom bomb, but spent most of her life as a committed Maoist working on dairy farms in China.

The Bonfire of China’s Vanities

Yu Hua has written the sprawling novel of his country’s boom years — entrancing and angering millions of Chinese in the process.

1977 Exam Opened Escape Route Into China’s Elite

For a whole generation consigned to the countryside, a university entrance examination three decades ago was a chance to escape what seemed like a life sentence of tedium and hardship.