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 →
Religion is making a comeback in China. But the position of Daoism, the fifth of the larger religions in China, is rather unclear, as it is hard to trace than other religious, explains journalist Ian Johnson to PRI. What is the place of Daoism in today´s China? From a transcribed phone interview.
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Former factory worker, and now author Zhang Lijia looks on her weblog into the fate of Xu Lizhi, a 24-year old Foxconn worker, who of many who jumped to death on September 20. Xu was not only a migrant worker, but also a poet, she tells us.Read More →
India as a holiday destination raises different feelings among tourists, but author Zhang Lijia admits on het weblog she is fascinated by the country. She recalls her first stay in New Delhi, and how she encountered Anuj – a book seller in Delhi.Read More →
The movie ´Blind Massage´ (Tui Na) by the director Lou Ye has been winning a range of awards, including a nomination for the Golden Bear in Berlin. Author Zhang Lijia visited the movie with her friend Elke, and was impressed, despite some flaws, she writes on her weblog.Read More →
A major shift in consumers preferences in China is that from foreign brands to Chinese. Author Shaun Rein of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia explains in CNBC how the top-5 brands at Singles´Day illustrates the growing China pride.Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson joins a radio debate at “On the Point” on the NPR on the blogger Zhou Xiaoping, who was last month endorsed by president Xi Jinping. Xi, or at least his speech writers, are trying to regain the ideological high-grounds, says Ian Johnson. They are looking for new moral values, and Zhou fits into this picture. His message ´proud to be Chinese´, comes with an anti-American slant. He is criticizing Western media when they report about China, tells Johnson, but also himself not really sticking to the facts when talking about the US.Read More →
Taking care of her aging father, author Zhang Lijia realized China is not ready to deal with its rapidly aging population. On for 1.6 percent care facilities are available. China became old before it got rich, unlike its neighbor Japan.Read More →
Farming has been for 4,000 years the keystone of China´s civilization. But today it is dragging its economy, changed into a burden rather than an asset, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. The government wants to move farmers to the cities, sometimes against their will.Read More →
Making money does not yet mean you know how to behave in an international setting of fellow rich, China´s multimillionaires have discovered. Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the China Rich List, sees a watershed in the community he studies, he tells Australian Financial Review.Read More →
The much awarded journalist Ian Johnson is joining today the China Speakers Bureau. Working in China since 1984, Ian worked for the Wall Street Journal as feature writer and bureau chief for twelve years.He is currently living in Beijing and Berlin as an independent journalist, working both for the New York Review of Books and the Wall Street Journal.Read More →