A weekly roundup of news and analysis to help you follow key developments in China and the Chinese church.
Why Christian High Schools Are Filling with Atheist Students(February 20, 2018, Christianity Today) Chinese parents send their children to America out of frustration with their own highly competitive and narrowly tracked education system.
China’s Communist Party Takes (Even More) Control of the Media: A ChinaFile Conversation (April 11, 2018, China File) What does this change mean? Various experts weigh in.
China’s online retailers pull Bible from shelves as Beijing gets strict on sale of holy text (April 5, 2018, South China Morning Post) The authorities are no longer looking the other way when it comes to selling Bibles online.
Nobody Knows Anything About China (March 21, 2018, Foreign Policy) We don’t know China because most information is unreliable, partial, and/or distorted.
The Foreign Missionaries Who First Turned a Lens on China (March 16, 2018, Sixth Tone)
Very few Chinese people owned cameras at this time. Of even greater value than the photographs themselves was the fact that the missionaries were focusing the lens on what Chinese people considered extremely mundane, looking at Chinese life from a foreigner’s perspective.
Forbidden Feeds: Government Controls on Social Media in China (March 13, 2018, Pen) A look at how the Party monitors and controls online expression, particularly on social media platforms.
China’s Cities Are Making Migrant Workers Profoundly Lonely (March 6, 2018, Sixth Tone) Shenzhen is hardly anyone’s laojia. Of the millions of people who live here, most have ties with the city that stretch back no further than a generation.
Xi Won’t Go: A ChinaFile Conversation (February 25, 2018, China File)
What do constitutional changes mean for Chinese politics, political reform, and relations with the rest of the world?
China’s Hui Muslims fearful Chinese New Year education ban a sign of curbs to come (February 16, 2018, Reuters)
a ban on young people engaging in religious education in mosques is an unwelcome interference in how they lead their lives.
From imitation to innovation: How China became a tech superpower (February 13, 2018, Wired)
In China, change comes so quickly that the future can arrive before the past is fully stripped away.
Possible deal between Vatican and China alarms many Catholics (February 2, 2018,
The Washington Post)
Reports that the Vatican and China have reached an agreement on appointing bishops have been greeted with consternation by many Catholics in China and Taiwan.
China’s Rise and the Church’s Call (January 30, 2018, The Gospel Coalition)
We need to welcome a newfound interdependence with the global church—including brothers and sisters in China.