What does it mean for a city to be free? What happens when a free city loses its freedom? And when does that occur?

Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at the University of California–Irvine and the author of Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (Columbia Global Reports, 2020). (Author photograph by Audrey Fong)
The Met Goes to China
In July, while in New York, I toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s much buzzed about “China: Through the Looking Glass,” a visually stunning multimedia exhibit that showcases the varied ways that ...