Since Chinese government agencies have started to remove crosses from churches – officially for security reasons – the resistance, and government backlash, has been growing. Focus is in Zhejiang province. Journalist Ian Johnson toured experts and made an update for the New York Times.Read More →
While China is still executing more prisoners than any other country, those numbers are dropping fast. Author Zhang Lijia looks at the sometimes fierce debate on capital punishment in China for the IA-forum. Most Chinese support the death penalty, but that support is dropping fast, she writes.Read More →
Between China and the rest of the world, an abyss of misunderstandings has to be bridged, and that is one of author Zhang Lijia´s missions, she tells in Prestige Hong Kong. She tells about the research into prostitution in China, the theme of her upcoming book, and inspired by her grandmother. Read More →
Polling Chinese about religion is a field where western researchers fast get lost in translation, journalist Ian Johnson argues in The New York Times, looking at a Win/Gallup poll. Last year Johnson forced the Pew Research Centre to retract their conclusions on atheism in China. Why is it so hard to get a poll on religion in China right?Read More →
Author Zhang Lijia of “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China taught herself English while working at a rocket factory in Nanjing. For World English she recalls how she managed that job and discovered the advantages of being a non-native English speaker.Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson will be in Berlin from half June to half September, and is available to share his insights on civil society, culture and religion. He is a Beijing-based writer for the New York Review of Books, and his stories also appear in the New York Times and ChinaFile.Read More →
Author Zhang Lijia attended in March the Bookworm International Literary Festival, and talked about the changing role of women in China´s society. Here is the report of Al Jazeera. Zhang Lijia is currently writing a novel on prostitutes in China.Read More →
A slowdown of art sales in China is not only caused by the anti-graft campaign or the economic slowdown, but also by a growing sophistication of the art collectors, says China Rich List founder Rupert Hoogewerf in Barrons. They are not only going for big-ticket super-stars, but develop their own appreciation.Read More →
Chinese are becoming more adventurous in bed, told author Zhang Lijia Sunday at the Beijing Bookworm, with 71% having premarital sex (compared to 15% in 1989). Zhang Lijia prepares a novel “Lotus”, on prostitution in China, writes the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal: Only several decades ago, “Chinese womenRead More →
The number of leading women executives rises, says Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the China Rich list, especially in China, the UK and the US, where inequality between men and women has been dropping, he tells in the Shanghai Daily.Read More →
Author Zhang Lijia looked – at the request of Al Jazeera – back at the history of the famous CCTV New Year gala, attracting each year hundreds of million viewers, with a major impacts on China´s citizens. Her main advice: “de-politicization of the show. The most important thing is to let people to have some fun as they deserve on the special occasion.”Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson talked extensively to the famous Chinese architect Wu Liangyong, for the New York Times. His wide-ranging interview starts with a notorious debate among architects, where Wu explains why Rem Koolhaas was wrong on Beijing, and why president Xi Jinping supports Wu.Read More →