Submitting to The China Project
Thank you for your interest in The China Project, an independent media platform based in New York that offers daily news and analysis, original content from and about China, a podcast network, events, and much more. Click here to learn more about us.
We boast an extensive network of contributors who have lent us their reportage and expertise, including the likes of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Johnson, renowned Sinologist Geremie R. Barmé, scholar Ryan Hass (who was Director for China on the National Security Council during President Barack Obama’s second term), and Xinjiang academic Darren Byler, just to name a few, while our flagship podcast, The Sinica Podcast, has featured luminaries ranging from bestselling author Peter Hessler to former Australia Prime Minster Kevin Rudd to Chinese celebrity Mark Rowswell (better known as Dashan) to the legendary Sidney Rittenberg.
How do you get published on The China Project?
The easiest way is through pitching.
We welcome pitches of all kinds,. We especially want original reporting but we also publish reviews, opinion pieces, and unconventional stuff. Please let the following guide be your way of maximizing your chances of acceptance:
Pitches should be sent to our editorial staff at pitch@thechinaproject.com.
There’s no formula for the perfect pitch, but for those contacting us for the first time, it would help greatly if you structured your email this way:
First, give us the nut graf: Tell us why our readers should care about this topic. What is the news hook? Why is your story idea relevant for this current time and place? In the best pitches we’ve received, the writer is clear about what they want to discover, prove, or argue. Aside from that, these will help:
- A brief paragraph about who you are, what you do, and links to your published work (if applicable).
- How will you tell the story? As a news feature? Profile? Q-and-A? Review? Op-ed?
- How many words do you need? People have short attention spans: we can publish a piece of 500 words if it’s good and interesting, but we also publish deeply reported 5,000 word pieces. But we deeply detest filler words.
- Tell us your key sources of information, whether interview or secondary sources, and demonstrate an awareness of what other people have written related to your subject.
In general, we don’t run articles that merely ask questions; we’d prefer them answered.
Please keep in mind that though we are a China-focused media organization, most of our audience is based in the U.S.
Examples of the type of articles we like to publish
A very wide variety, from business and technology to politics and current affairs, society and culture to history. Take a look at our front page to get a sense of our diversity of content.
Above all, we value reportage. Please see:
- China’s semiconductor industry can’t quit German optics
- China’s war on drugs: From incarceration to rehabilitation
- ‘Online wailing wall’: How Chinese netizens continue to honor Li Wenliang, COVID-19 whistleblower
- Chinese moms in America’s illicit massage parlors
- An unmarried woman fights for her right to freeze her eggs in China
- China’s first civilian in space, and maybe a man on the Moon
- Pakistan releases Chinese man arrested for blasphemy
- China’s Arctic ambitions and Russian ties stoke NATO fears
Feature articles and profiles of interesting personalities are great:
- China looks to the Western classics
- The yin and yang worlds of a Chinese literary outlier
- The world according to Lu Xinghua, China’s renegade philosopher
Many of our pieces are characterized by curiosity, and the ones that do the best play off items currently in the public consciousness:
- The not-so-scary truth behind horror sensation ‘Incantation’
- Why are so many first-generation Chinese immigrants supporting Donald Trump?
- Mayhem in China’s semiconductor industry as ‘chips madmen’ are arrested
Trend pieces — what’s popular in China? what are the Chinese thinking about and engaging in? — are very good.
- Posing like American farmers is the latest trend among Chinese influencers
- Ultimate Frisbee soars in China — as a fashion sport
We run multiple columns, from This Week in China’s History to Queer China, travel stories, listicles, Q-and-A’s, exhibition reviews, essays about language, and much more. Surprise us.
Do you pay?
We pay highly-competitive rates for professional work. We pay lower but competitive rates if we need to put in a lot of work.
What about multimedia?
We pay for illustrations, photography and video, and we use various audio editing services, but we don’t often commission stand alone work in those media. But please get in touch if you have something to pitch!
What if I’m looking for a job?
We have been known to offer internships in our editorial, business, and marketing departments. Please refer to this page.
Anything else?
Let us know if you have other questions. We look forward to hearing from you!