Chinese has followed the lead by their former leader Deng Xiaoping to “become rich first”. But while hundreds of millions have indeed become more wealthy, social mobility has stalled, writes journalist Zhang Lijia, author of the forthcoming book on prostitution in China Lotus: A Novel in the New York Times.Read More →
China is proud about its millennia old culture, but just like the rest of society, its culture is also changing very fast. Old concepts like guanxi, losing face and the suppressed position of women are not what they were even a few decades ago. Many so-called China experts still cling to those old idea, but fortunately, we can offer a range of speakers at the China Speakers Bureau who have a clear view on how China´s culture is changing.Read More →
The Christian faith in China, sometimes illegally, sometimes condoned by the government, is growing fast, faster than other religions. Journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, explains in the Spectator why.Read More →
Author and journalist Zhang Lijia will visit in January the Netherlands, join a panel on China on January 22 and Amsterdam in January 23, 24. That coincides with the publishing of her novel Lotus: A Novel on the position of women and prostitution in China. Starting point were the stories of her grandmother, who was a concubine.Read More →
This summer journalist and internet expert Kaiser Kuo left his position at Baidu, to return to the US and works as a host of the Sinica podcast at China-focused media startup SupChina. At CCTV he looks back at almost 30 years of change, he experienced. The 1980s saw still most profound change, he tells. Then the software, the mentality changed profoundly. Later it was mostly the hardware of the country that adjusted to those earlier changes.Read More →
Religions have become more popular in China, but the government tries now to tighten rules for religious group, writes journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in the New York Times. Rules on religion are changed for the first time in a decade.Read More →
The term ´middle class´ shows up in almost every analysis on China. But economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, thinks the term creates more confusion than clarity, he explains to Knowledge CKGSB.Read More →
Forty years after Mao Zedong passed away, the country and its people are still struggling with the legacy of its former leader. Time to get clear on that legacy, writes Zhang Lijia, author of her autobiography”Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China on her weblog, and time to move on and change into a modern society.Read More →
Ai Xiaoming is one of China´s leading documentary makers, and all of them are officially banned in the country. Journalist Ian Johnson sits down with her for the NY Review of Books and discusses how it is to make banned documentaries, and (amongst many other subjects) why China has no intellectuals.Read More →
When it comes to reviving moral values in China, most attention goes to Christianity. But in an interview for the New York Times with Matthew S. Erie, author of China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law journalist Ian Johnson hears the Islam is a similar emerging religious force. Ian Johnson is the author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After MaoRead More →
Author Paul French has added yet another subject to his long list of current and historical affairs with his latest book Gypsies of Shanghai: The Roma Community of Late 1930s and 1940s Shanghai and Their Role in the City’s Entertainment Industry. The book is small and cheap, Paul adds on his weblog, but it illustrates the amazing diversity of pre-war Shanghai.Read More →
2017 is going to be a productive year for both Zhang Lijia and Ian Johnson as they are going to publish their long-awaited books. Both are very well versed in documenting cultural change in China, a development that often remain undetected for the outside world.Read More →