This paper presents the late Quaternary diatoms record of the Ocean Drilling Pogam (ODP) Leg 184, Site 1144 in the South China Sea. The water depth is 2037 m, and sediment thickness is equal to 500 m, a nearly continuous Pleistocene to Holocene sequence is recovered with the cores. The Site 1144 core samples used in this study yield abundant well preserved diatoms from the surface to 183. 62 m below the sea floor.Based on the distribution of the zonal diatom species and on changes in the palaeoecological structure of the diatom assemblages (e. g. , warm- vs. cold-water assemblages), eight diatom assemblages are defined from this section, the eight diatom assemblages coincide with the oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 1-8., the diatom assemblage 1,3,5 and 7 coincide with the interglacial time (oxygen isotope stage 1, 3, 5, 7), the diatom assemblages 2,4,6 and 8 coincide with the glacial time (oxygen isotope stages 2, 4, 6, 8).Their abundance and preservation are related, with high abundance values accompanied by good preservation states and low abundance by poor preservation. On the whole, the cycles are well in phase, with high sea level (interglacial) related to high diatom abundance, and low sea level (glacial) to high abundance.Low sea-surface temperature and high bioproductivity is a result of intensified trade wind strength as indicated by the neritic/pelagic diatom ratio. The neritic/pelagic diatom is important as it helps us better understand of the relationship between palaeoceanographic evolution and trade wind strength in the region.