For generations, working with ancient Chinese texts has been a painstaking task. Specialists would spend years deciphering unfamiliar characters, copying manuscripts by hand, adding punctuation to texts written without it, comparing different editions and tracing references scattered across thousands of years of records. But artificial intelligence (AI) is now changing that process, not only by helping to preserve fragile manuscripts but also by transforming how ancient texts are recovered,...

An All Nippon Airways passenger jet took evasive action after coming close to a government inspection aircraft near Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday, in the latest aviation safety incident at the airport since a deadly runway collision in 2024. According to Japanese media reports, ANA flight NH968 from Shanghai was approaching the airport at around 6am on Tuesday when its traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) was activated, warning of a potential collision risk with another aircraft. The...

A Chinese speaker today might describe their day at work as first making a “PPT” (a PowerPoint presentation) and then having to “PS tu” (Photoshop an image). After clocking off, they might “chang K” (sing karaoke) with friends before taking the “C wei” (centre spot) in a group photo. These novel phrases spring from the widespread habit of adopting English abbreviations directly into daily speech, usually pronounced letter by letter. While this is the organic result of cultural exchange, the...

Many young students in China have been inspired by the achievement of Wang Hong, the first Chinese woman to receive the Fields Medal – the world’s most prestigious prize in mathematics. But it is the 35-year-old’s candid remarks about feeling “discouraged” in her early years at an elite Chinese university that appear to have struck the deepest chord. Those comments have set off a broader debate about the country’s education system and whether it provides the support students need to develop...

Minutes after a Berlin court sentenced a Chinese man to five years in prison for aiding and abetting aggravated rape and sexual coercion, two women who had sat through the trial hugged each other and cried. But the case left one of those women, named Kristina, balancing mixed emotions as she struggled to reconcile her desire to see the perpetrators punished and questions about what justice really meant in a case of this nature. The 32-year-old accused, who was studying medicine, was jailed for...