A weekly roundup of news and analysis to help you follow key developments in China and the Chinese church.
Life inside the Olympics bubble: Limbo between China and the world (February 8, 2022, The Los Angeles Times) It feels like a parallel universe of ID-assigned bar codes, throat swabs and room service delivered by swift staff wearing goggles and full protective gear.
Give Me Anything But Dumplings this Lunar New Year (January 31, 2022, The World of Chinese)
Yes, dumplings are well-loved by some, but for a large part of the population outside of northern China, eating dumplings for the Lunar New Year is far from a given. In some regions of the country, they are absent, or only play a minor role on the dinner table.
Migrant Worker’s Contact Tracing Story Touches Chinese Netizens (January 24, 2022, Radii China) The work history of a migrant worker searching for his missing son in Beijing has gone viral on Chinese social media.
China’s Foreign Firms Are Running Out of a Key Resource: Foreigners (January 19, 2022, Sixth Tone) The strict policies have left large numbers of expats effectively stranded outside China. As many as 100,000 foreigners may be waiting for permission to return to Shanghai alone, local media outlet SmartShanghai estimates. It’s unclear exactly how many foreigners remain in China.
Video: Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Christian Faith (January 6, 2022, CantoSense)
As Christians, should we be wary of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)? This episode, we are joined by Dr. Lai Pak Wah to discuss TCM and whether the principles and religious elements should be cause for concern.
China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class (January 3, 2022, The New Yorker) My students from the nineteen-nineties grew up in rural poverty. Now they’re in their forties, and their country is unrecognizable.
Overseas organizations, individuals not allowed to operate online religious info services within the Chinese territory: regulations (December 21, 2021, The Global Times) The measures stipulated that online preaching should be organized and carried out by religious groups, temples and churches and religious colleges that have obtained the Internet Religious Information Service Permit.
Patrick Wack’s Photographs of Xinjiang (December 16, 2021, China File) Craving a change of scenery and a desire to witness a region at the “crossroads” of history, in 2016 he set out on what would be the first of six trips to photograph China’s far western region of Xinjiang.
The building blocks of Chinese, part 5: Making sense of Chinese words (December 15, 2021, Hacking Chinese) You do need to know characters, but you also need to know how they fit together into words.
China’s Cultural Crackdowns: A guide (December 2, 2021, Sup China) From classrooms to phone screens to celebrity idols, the Chinese government is tightening its control over Chinese society.
Video: A Glimpse Into Yosemite’s Chinese History (October 20, 2020, Yosemite National Park) Ranger Yenyen Chan explores the role Chinese immigrants played in the early years of Yosemite National Park.
Weibo Discusses: How Has the Covid Epidemic Changed Your Life? (November 11, 2021, What’s on Weibo) The topic triggered thousands of comments from people sharing their thoughts and experiences, but the post that started the discussion (@人间投影仪) simply said: “I’d like to go back to a world where we don’t need to wear masks.”