"Renditions" was established by Chinese American translator George Kao who was a visiting senior fellow at RCT and contributed a number of translations to the journal himself.Special issues include one on women's writing (issues 27 & 28, 1987) by writers from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; the first anthology of Hong Kong literature in any language (issues 29 & 30, 1988); Chinese Impressions of the West (issues 53 & 54, 2000), which presents the experience and observations of those who journeyed to the West in the 19th century, as well as the impressions and opinions of those who had never been outside China; and poems, plays, stories and paintings about Wang Zhaojun (issues 59 & 60, 2003), a Han court lady and celebrated beauty who married a Xiongnu chieftain in 33 BCE.