Had the honor of reviewing @yilingliu95.bsky.social's Wall Dancers alongside Suk-Young Kim's Millennial North Korea for the LA Review of Books (while also reflecting on digital censorship and my uneasy feelings about being online generally) lareviewofbooks.org/article/wall...

Dancing in Shackles | Los Angeles Review of Books

Two new books about internet control in China and North Korea address the potent question of what it means to be free online.

lareviewofbooks.org

Congratulations to all of the 2026 long-listed authors:Nicolas Niarchos Fatemeh Jamalpour @ntabrizy.bsky.social @ecetemelkuran.bsky.social @trymainelee.bsky.social @yilingliu95.bsky.social Calvin Duncan Sophie Cull Geoffrey Robertson Jean-Pierre Filiu Alex Perry #2026MoorePrize #humanrights

What does techno-modernity look like from inside the Great Firewall? On the 开门见山 | Gateway to Global China podcast, @yangyangcheng.bsky.social discusses creativity and self-expression at the edge of what's permissible with journalist @yilingliu95.bsky.social and writer @afrawang.bsky.social.

Episode 9 | Dancing in China's Digital Space | Made in China Journal

For years, Anglophone coverage of the Chinese internet has emphasised the Great Firewall. The focus on censorship and surveillance collapses information production and access into a false binary betwe...

madeinchinajournal.com

The US vs. China AI race is “a story used to justify sprinting ahead without guardrails,” @yilingliu95.bsky.social writes. It obscures what many people in both countries share: a sense of precarity and powerlessness as they face the technological future. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...

Opinion | The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

nytimes.com

As always, count on @yilingliu95.bsky.social for insightful accounts of the US and China's intersecting social pathologies - and the need to work together to right the system.

Opinion | The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

nytimes.com

In both the U.S. and China, @yilingliu95.bsky.social writes, "There is a shared sense of precarity that lies beneath the envy and distrust: the technological future is taking shape at vertiginous speed yet its promise is not shared by all."

Opinion | The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

nytimes.com

Learned a lot from @yilingliu95.bsky.social 's latest op-ed on AI anxiety in China, which reveals the US-China race to build more advanced AI models is often seen by working people on both sides as a race to the bottom. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...

Opinion | The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

nytimes.com

Great piece by @yilingliu95.bsky.social about Chinese netizens despairing over their future in the face of AI. (Liu wrote one of my favorite books of the year, The Wall Dancers)

Opinion | The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

nytimes.com

I always say China and the US- despite their real differences - have many substantial similarities. This essay from @yilingliu95.bsky.social highlights on of them. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...

Opinion | The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

nytimes.com

📚 Great Book Alert! I read about a dozen narrative non-fiction books this year already, but I didn't really get around recommending them after the first two. There was just too much to do here at Harvard. So now, that the semester is over, I'll start sharing more of the stuff I loved to read. 1/5

@samanthsubramanian.bsky.social talks to @yilingliu95.bsky.social about the Chinese internet – from the ever-shifting cycles of state oversight to the surprising spaces where creativity and subcultures thrive. Visit us at www.equator.org/podcasts to hear more.

Just finished @yilingliu95.bsky.social's The Wall Dancers, a tremendously touching and important book. If you want to know about how the Chinese Internet blossomed and then shrank, how it gave room to feminists and then hounded them, how it shaped hip-hop and gay culture, this is for you.

The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu: 9780593491850 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

An eye-opening exploration of the Chinese internet that reveals the intricate dance between freedom and control in contemporary China “The Wall Dancers is history told in a gripping, novelistic...

penguinrandomhouse.com

Our 4/9 issue is now online, with Pankaj Mishra on India and Iran, Pablo Scheffer on the art of tennis, @yilingliu95.bsky.social on Shenzhen’s engineers, Miranda Seymour on Muriel Spark’s spark, Ben Lerner on John Berger, @fotoole.bsky.social on Trump’s war of choice, & more.

April 9, 2026 Issue

Table of Contents

nybooks.com

I had a lovely time speaking with the very talented @yilingliu95.bsky.social (whose new book is SO good and truly a must-read) - go listen to our convo via the @nuvoices.bsky.social podcast now!

NüVoices 女性之音@nuvoices.bsky.social · 6mo ago

NEW EPISODE: This week, Jessie Lau speaks to Yi-Ling Liu, a writer covering technology and Chinese society, about her debut book “The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet”: nuvoices.com/2026/02/18/n...

"Even though the Chinese internet is still enclosed within this firewall, it has expanded beyond its borders." @rachelcheung.bsky.social interviews @yilingliu95.bsky.social on her new book, "The Wall Dancers." buff.ly/I7eDuwh

Read an excerpt from @yilingliu95.bsky.social new book! “To understand China today and where it’ll go tomorrow, we must learn to read the Chinese internet: what goes viral and what disappears just as swiftly, how it shapes and is shaped by the outside world ... .” restofworld.org/2026/wall-da...

To understand China, we need to understand the Chinese internet

In her new book “The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet,” journalist Yi-Ling Liu examines the country’s censorship, viral trends and growing global power.

restofworld.org

In her new book “The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection On the Chinese Internet,” journalist @yilingliu95.bsky.social examines the country’s censorship, viral trends, and growing power. Read an excerpt: restofworld.org/2026/wall-da...

To understand China, we need to understand the Chinese internet

In her new book “The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet,” journalist Yi-Ling Liu examines the country’s censorship, viral trends and growing global power.

restofworld.org

Wrote a little intro to this excerpt from @yilingliu95.bsky.social's new book, reflecting on Chinese hip-hop's strange decade and the tendency for "cultural freeze frames" in English writing on non-western contemporary culture.

Equator@equatormag.bsky.social · 6mo ago

An excerpt from Yi-Ling Liu ’s "The Wall Dancers”, about how the internet made — and then unmade — Chinese hip-hop: “Kafe once aspired to be like Kendrick Lamar, who was commercially popular but also spoke truth to power. That would no longer be possible.“

On Thursday, February 5, @yilingliu95.bsky.social joins @afrawang.bsky.social to discuss her new book, this transformational chapter of China’s modern history, and the individuals who shaped it, from entrepreneurs to activists, bloggers to artists. Tickets here: asiasociety.org/center-us-ch...

Yi-Ling Liu: China’s Internet Censorship

Register now to hear Yi-Ling Liu talk about this transformational chapter of China’s modern history, and the individuals who shaped it, from entrepreneurs to activists, bloggers to artists.

asiasociety.org

I've been lucky to get an early peek at this book, and it's wonderful. Rare insight into how diverse Chinese lives play out online and off. Stories of actually existing China tech life, and people navigating the margins and the mainstream. Check it out!

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅@zeyiyang.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Next Tuesday (Feb 3), I will be talking to @yilingliu95.bsky.social in New York about her new book: The Wall Dancers. It is a great chronology of how individuals in China grow up with the internet and end up shaping or being engulfed in it. Come join us & RSVP here! yuandmebooks.com/products/boo...

I’m taking my book THE WALL DANCERS on tour! 💃 If you’re in NYC, New Haven, DC, and Boston, I'll be discussing the book with some wonderful folks. Event links in comments!

My book THE WALL DANCERS: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet, will be coming out next week, February 3, by Knopf! You can pre-order the book here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708614...

The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu: 9780593491850 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

An eye-opening exploration of the Chinese internet that reveals the intricate dance between freedom and control in contemporary China “The Wall Dancers is history told in a gripping, novelistic...

penguinrandomhouse.com

Glad to see Wall Dancers by @yilingliu95.bsky.social on this list (almost finished it/the profiles of individuals are fascinating/lots of its main points re changes since 2008 resonate/glad to see nods in notes to many writers on China I’ve also learned from) www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Spring 2026 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview: Politics & Current Events

Government malfeasance, the consequences of too much tech, and the emotional lives of medical caregivers are spotlighted in spring’s current affairs titles.

publishersweekly.com

DeepSeek was just the beginning. @yilingliu95.bsky.social took a look at what's going on with Chinese AI www.wired.com/story/china-...

Thousands of Companies Are Driving China’s AI Boom. A Government Registry Tracks Them All

How the Cyberspace Administration of China inadvertently made a guide to the country’s homegrown AI revolution.

wired.com

Next Tuesday (Feb 3), I will be talking to @yilingliu95.bsky.social in New York about her new book: The Wall Dancers. It is a great chronology of how individuals in China grow up with the internet and end up shaping or being engulfed in it. Come join us & RSVP here! yuandmebooks.com/products/boo...

Book Launch | The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu

Pre-purchase your copy of the featured title to guarantee your signed copy! This helps ensure that everyone who wants a book goes home with one, in case we sell out at the event.  ABOUT THE BOOK An in...

yuandmebooks.com

I had the honor of reading and blurbing @yilingliu95.bsky.social's THE WALL DANCERS. It's a riveting, gorgeously crafted narrative whose examination of censorship, solidarity, and collective power really couldn't be more timely. You can (and should!) pre-order it now:

The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu: 9780593491850 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

An eye-opening exploration of the Chinese internet that reveals the intricate dance between freedom and control in contemporary China In the late 1990s, as the world was waking up to the power and em...

penguinrandomhouse.com

I wrote for @restofworld.org about China's chatbot therapists — why young people are turning to AI for mental health care & the risks of AI sycophancy restofworld.org/2025/young-p...

Young people in China are embracing AI therapy

Cheap, accessible, and friendly AI tools can augment scarce professional help, but there are risks to overreliance on the technology.

restofworld.org

A book to watch for in 2026 (have been eager to see it since reading and liking some magazine pieces by @yilingliu95.bsky.social) bookshop.org/p/books/danc... + it comes with blurbs by @karenhao.bsky.social & @iandenisjohnson.bsky.social (who refers to it as a "masterful piece of reporting")

The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet

Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet

bookshop.org

Young people in China say that AI chatbots save them time and money, and are more discreet in a society where stigma around mental health persists. But there are risks to chatbots becoming therapists, writes @yilingliu95.bsky.social for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/young-p...

Young people in China are embracing AI therapy

Cheap, accessible, and friendly AI tools can augment scarce professional help, but there are risks to overreliance on the technology.

restofworld.org

By 2030, a fifth of new cars sold in China will be fully driverless, and 70% will feature advanced assisted-driving technology. @yilingliu95.bsky.social breaks down what's driving the success of China's automated vehicle industry:

China’s vision for a driverless future is miles ahead of everyone else’s

Strong government backing and strict regulatory oversight of the Chinese autonomous vehicle industry contrasts sharply with the piecemeal laws and slower adoption in the U.S.

restofworld.org