China Books Review operates as a critical forum for sustained engagement with contemporary cultural production from and about China and the Sinophone world. The publication privileges the review as a form of intellectual inquiry, not merely appraisal. Its editors seek writing that moves beyond summary to construct an original argument—one that uses the work under consideration as a lens for broader cultural, political, or aesthetic questions. The scope extends across books, film, television, albums, games, performances, and exhibitions, reflecting a capacious understanding of what constitutes a text worth reviewing. The call is rolling, with no submission fee, and accepts two distinct formats: reviews of a single recent work (published within the past year) at 1600–2000 words, and review-essays that place multiple works in conversation at 3200–4000 words. This bifurcation allows for both focused critique and synthetic analysis. Reviewers are expected to demonstrate close attention to detail—quoting and citing with precision—while also articulating a perspective that contributes something new to discourse on China and the Sinophone world. The publication does not prescribe a house style beyond this commitment to argument and evidence. What the publication offers is editorial space for rigorous, literate criticism without the constraints of academic formatting or the brevity of mainstream review sections. There is no prize, no fee, and no physical location; the reward is publication within a dedicated critical ecosystem. The curatorial vision is one of intellectual seriousness: reviews that treat cultural works as occasions for thought, not as items to be rated. The editors explicitly reject the thumbs-up/thumbs-down model in favor of writing that synthesizes and argues.