''Sixth Tone'' is a state-owned English-language online magazine published by

Shanghai United Media Group Shanghai United Media Group () is a state media company of the People's Republic of China, established on October 28, 2013, through the merger of the city's two largest newspaper groups, Jiefang Daily Press Group and Wenhui–Xinmin United Pres ...

Name

''Sixth Tone'''s name relates to the number of tones in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

, but also is stated to carry more metaphorical meaning as well. Mandarin Chinese has four active tones and a fifth dropped tone that has less prominence than the other four. Because of the language's five tones, the publication's name refers to an ideal of expanding beyond traditionally-reported items in

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

media; making it the "sixth tone".

History

The online magazine began publication on April 6, 2016, with an investment of US$4.5 million from the Shanghai United Media Group. It is a sister publication of ''The Paper''. Wei Xing was its first editor-in-chief until May 30, 2016, when he moved to create a start-up company and therefore no longer worked for the paper. Succeeding Wei, Zhang Jun became the new editor-in-chief that year. By 2018, Western media began to cite ''Sixth Tone'' in news reports. Vincent Ni, in an essay published in ''Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture'', stated that "For foreign journalists, it has also shown a diverse and authentic side of China that rarely received much attention elsewhere" and that the publication "has proved far more effective than the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in English-language news programs by the state broadcaster

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

, CCTV and

CRI CRI or CRi may refer to: Organizations * Canadian Rivers Institute, for river sciences, University of New Brunswick * Cancer Research Institute, New York, US * Centro de Relaciones Internacionales (International Relations Center), Universidad N ...

." As of October 2022, internet users in Mainland China are blocked from accessing ''Sixth Tone''.http://www.chinafirewalltest.com/?siteurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sixthtone.com

Reception

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian of '' Foreign Policy'' stated that ''Sixth Tone'' has a less staid and "saccharine" tone compared to many other English-language publications from China. She stated "If webby U.S. media startup '' Vox'' were acquired by the Chinese Communist Party, it might resemble ''Sixth Tone''". In a 2016 interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the then-editor-in-chief Wei Xing sought to differentiate his magazine to other Chinese English-language publications. Wei stated that compared to other government-owned news publications, ''Sixth Tone'' would have an easier time growing since it "lacks a politics-saturated bureaucracy because it is a start-up".

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.sixthtone.com Online magazines 2016 establishments in China English-language magazines Magazines established in 2016 Magazines published in Shanghai Magazines published in China State media Organizations associated with the Chinese Communist Party

Name

History

Reception

See also

References

External links