This paper aims to investigate the influences of various cooking treatments （boiling， steaming， microwaving， stir-frying and frying processes） on the antioxidants （anthocyanins， carotenoids， vitamin C and phenolics） and antioxidant activity in red cabbage in China. Compared with the raw， obvious reductions of the total anthocyanin， total carotenoid， vitamin C， and total phenolic and antioxidant potential （FRAP value） were observed after various thermal treatments. Among these reactions， stir-frying and frying processes resulted in a significant reduction of antioxidants and antioxidant activity， whereas steaming and microwaving retained most of the health-promoting compounds and may thus be the better choice for cooking red cabbage. The prolonged cooking time also resulted in a more obviously reduction in the antioxidant and the antioxidant activities. Further correlation analysis of the photochemical and antioxidants indicated that vitamin C showed the highest correlation with antioxidant capacity， whereas total carotenoid content showed the lowest correlation with antioxidant capacity.