While religion is getting more leeway in China, the opposite is happening for the Tibetans and Uighur, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in the Globe&Mail. Just last week Xinjiang, home to the Uighur, saw a strong increase in security forces.Read More →
The forceful removal of crosses at churches and the arrest of Christians have hit of Western media regularly. But that is not the big picture, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at CNN. Those government actions are mainly symbolic, he says.Read More →
Few scholars have looked into the inner workings of China’s Communist Party like Sebastian Heilmann, founding president of the Mercator Institute of Chinese Studies (Merics) in Berlin, a government professor at the University of Trier and author of China’s Political System. Journalist Ian Johnson interviews him on the success of the party for the New York Times.Read More →
The long anticipated book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao by journalist Ian Johnson will hit the shelves in April and May, and is followed by an intensive book tour, mostly along academic institutions in the US and China. Read More →
Recent rumors about better relations between China´s central government and the Vatican has put attention to the small but influential following of the Vatican in China. Author Ian Johnson of the forthcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao elaborates at the NPR.Read More →
Some critical writers became dissidents, others stayed in the Chinese network for authors. Journalist Ian Johnson talks for the Pulitzer Center to the Hu Fayan, neither a part of the system, neither a dissident. How is he managing in China? Read More →
Many have been remembering in 2016 the anniversary of both start and finish of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and many scholars used the moment to publish their views on this ground-shattering event in the country´s recent history. Journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao reviews some of the milestones in the troublesome academic research for ChinaFile.Read More →
The outside world mostly does not know China for its humor, although it adopted a Chinese variation youmo. Journalist Ian Johnson discusses with Christopher Rea, author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China, at the New York Times humor in China.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 →
Award-winning journalist Ian Johnson reports in ChinaFile on the monthly trip poet Liu Xia makes to visit her husband, Nobel price winner Lui Xiaobo, and her slowly increasing production of new poems. “A small, fragile woman with extremely short-cropped hair that sets off her high cheekbones and bright, wide eyes.”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 →