Latest Posts
My picks for religious developments – Ian Johnson
Journalist Ian Johnson provides in The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao an unprecedented view on how religion has been developing in China over de past years. In an interview with the author for the LA Review of Books Ting Guo argues Johnson did miss important developments. Ian Johnson disagrees.Read More →
Three CSB speakers made top-25 of best China books
Zhang Lijia, Ian Johnson and Howard French made it to the top-25 of China books of the Signature website of the US literary agency with the same name. The authors are praised, as they help to move away from the classic monolithic picture the West had from China.Read More →
Chinese management reform: shunned by the West – Bill Fischer
When Western companies discovered new management systems in Japan like Just-In-Time in the 1980s, they applied it fast,despite initial misgivings.But when they see now new ways of decentralizing corporate structures in Tencent and Haier, they are reluctant to take it serious, says Haier-watcher and IMD professor Bill Fischer at AP.Read More →
Internet: China’s only public sphere – Kaiser Kuo
The internet in China has become the country’s public sphere, says China watcher Kaiser Kuo, former Baidu communication director, at the Paulson Institute. Despite blocked websites and government control, it is the place where netizens express their opinions and discuss.Read More →
Xi Jinping as a guardian of Buddhism – Ian Johnson
Journalist Ian Johnson will soon publish his groundbreaking book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. For the New York Times he selected a special story, on how president Xi Jinping became the guardian of Buddhism and other traditional believes, and today uses it, not as an object for repression, but as a part of China’s globalization strategy.Read More →
Countering China’s narrative on its globalization – Howard French
Journalist Howard French’s book Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power is reviewed by the Globe&Mail. Key argument: French counters the Chinese narrative of a benevolent force, unlike the greedy Western colonizators. And on Trump: “When two emperors appear simultaneously, one must be destroyed.”Read More →
One-child policy helped female billionaires – Rupert Hoogewerf
China is leading the ranks of female billionaires. Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher of the Hurun China Rich List gives a few reasons why women are doing better on his list. One of them is the one-child policy, he tells Caixin.Read More →
The depth and breadth of Zhang Lijia’s Lotus – review
The Asian Review of Books puts author and journalist Zhang Lijia’s book Lotus: A Novel in perspective in their review by Glyn Ford of the widely acclaimed work. “In the end the women are stronger than the men,” Ford concludes.Read More →
Ian Johnson wins Shorenstein Journalism Award
Veteran China foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Price winner Ian Johnson has won the prestigious Shorenstein Journalism Award for 2016, the organization announced. Ian Johnson is currently working for the New York Times and the New York Review of Books. In a few weeks time his book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao will be available.Read More →
E-publishers better than print for authors – Shaun Rein
Online reading is developing fast into a major industry in China and China Reading of Tencent is heading for a huge IPO in Hong Kong later this year. For authors, e-publishing has major advantages compared to print publishing, says bestseller author Shaun Rein to Knowledge CKGSB.Read More →
Where Xi Jinping has been failing – Ian Johnson
China annual political meetings passed without any great upheaval, but not all is well for president Xi Jinping, writes veteran journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in the New York Review of Book. No legal reforms, no successor, and then there is the economy.Read More →
Life of a prostitute – Zhang Lijia
Zhang Lijia’s book Lotus: A Novel got already much praise from reviewers. For the South China Morning Post she describes the life of Yong Gan, the main female character in her book, and how she ended, like 10 million other women, in prostitution in China.Read More →