The Mortals: BASIS China Magazine
Welcome to The Mortals, the first and only student-led magazine covering the eleven BASIS China schools. The Mortals is more than a publication; it is a literary project dedicated to the art of expressive communication in all forms—fiction, essays, creative nonfiction, poetry, memoirs, speeches, and you-name-it. The Mortals serves as a platform for burgeoning writers, critical readers, and creative thinkers both within the Basis China Network and beyond to share meaningful voices, thought-provoking ideas, and bold imagination that transcends the page.
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Our latest volume.
Summer | Winter | Spring
2024-2025
The Mortals runs a quarterly magazine that is funded by, printed by, and distributed across eleven BASIS China schools. Each school year, the magazine's editorial board (built and currently led by Albert Wang '26) decides on an unifying theme for the volume, often an abstract concept that propels reasoning and imagination. Each of the three issues in the same volume then explores and examines an aspect of the theme. The digital version of selected issues are emailed to all BASIS China students, parents, faculty, and staff; and are available online through this website.
Our writing contests.
Each year, The Mortals coordinates with BASIS China's English Department to host a writing contest, its format as creative as the writing it celebrates. Since its founding, the magazine's editorial board has hosted a poetry slam, a creative debate, and an "Observatory" wherein contestants were immersed in selected campus locations and asked to describe what they saw as vividly as possible. As students, we will one day leave our campuses, just like as mortals, our flesh cannot endure through time's inevitability. Still, our arts, our cultures, and our thoughts may cross generations. We welcome anyone and everyone, beyond objectification and beyond doubt, towards humility and humanity.
The Mortals's editorial board designed two foundational English writing, rhetoric (nonfiction), and literature (fiction) courses for primary school students across the eleven BASIS China schools. At the Park Lane Harbor campus, these courses are taught as electives by the current editor-in-chief. Extracurricular in their design, the courses break from the BASIS system's syllabus in their emphasis of the understanding of the rhetorical situation and the use of the literary license, cornerstones in writing nonfiction and fiction, respectively.
Our writing courses.
Each year, The Mortals hosts a workshop, inviting published authors, alumni, and Heads of Schools as guest speakers and lecturers. Each workshop weaves together an nurturing, interactive environment and a cutting-edge, experimental pedagogy. We seek to create a space for students to refine their craft through feedback, discussion, and exploration of literary techniques.
Our writers' workshops.
Our Columns.
The Mortals provides a dedicated space for student activists and organizations to run columns on a variety of subjects. Whether it's exploring the wonders of astronomy, advocating for sustainability, or sharing the beauty of poetry, we encourage passionate writers to contribute and connect with their peers.
