Western observers wrongly assume that China’s rigid censorship is stopping the country from being innovative. As China is becoming a leader in global innovation, that misunderstanding should be dealt with, says China veteran and former Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo to Time about Baidu’s CEO Robin Li.Read More →

Author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao meets controversial artist Qiu Zhijie for the New York Review of Books.Before the interview, Ian Johnson puts Qiu and their first meetings into perspective. Here is the introduction of the interview.Read More →

Women have been bearing most of the burden of China’s shift from state economy to market economy, says author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel, on prostitution in China, at the BBC World Service. Despite a lot of advantages, women suffered severe setbacks. State owned companies let women go at 45 years of age, and getting hired at the sexist job market has been harder than ever, she adds. “Some refuse to hire women at a child-bearing age.”Read More →

Journalist Ian Johnson’s latest book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao is not short of positive reviews. But Jeremiah Jenne gives in the World of Chinese his review an extra twist. The Return of religion in China is not limited to the country’s search of new values, but might be part of a worldwide search of values, Jenne writes.Read More →

Daoism is key to understand today’s China, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. to ABC News. “You can provide values, an escape for people, or turn inward to piety, but you cannot challenge the Government. You can’t be an alternative source of values or the Government will turn against you.”Read More →

Tencent’s WeChat, one of China’s leading data companies, might be easier in sharing data with the government compared to its Western competitors, says WeChat expert Matthew Brennan. But when it comes to sharing data with marketeers, the company is way more restrictive, he tells in Harvard Political Review.Read More →

When opening and reform of China took off, Western visitors were received as saviors. But that attitude has changed dramatically, writes Chinese-American Kaiser Kuo at SupChina. “While I full-throatedly decry this kind of anti-foreignism, I think at some level it’s entirely natural, and I’m actually thankful that it’s kept mostly in check,” he says.Read More →

The BBC reports on a booming, but secretive industry in China: how to get rid of the mistress of your husband. Author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China explains why flaws in the current divorce rules cause this weird phenomena.Read More →

Renowned China expert Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, uses the final edition of the China Economic Quarterly (CEQ) to rub it in. Many journalists and other analysts made a living predicting China’s demise over the past two decades. Kroeber explains why those predictions failed, and not China itself, in the South China Morning Post.Read More →

China is using its growing state power to put pressure on other countries and companies, but it is not only the government, argues business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order. The government has become very sophisticated in using also the consumer wallets to put pressure on foreign brands and tourist destinations, he tells The Diplomat.Read More →

A visibly angry Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, shows that the eviction of migrants in Beijing – described by the insulting term “low-end population – is raising the tensions in China’s capital. “We live in a socialist country,” she fumes at CNN. “They are the unsung heroes of our country.”Read More →