Chinese apps like Tiktok and WeChat make inroads into the US, and American companies start to copy their features. Fintech analyst Sara Hsu says fierce domestic competition makes those apps better than what we know outside China, as younger generations like their lives through apps. So, if they do well, they can cater for much more than only chitchat, se tells at CGTN.

Women in China might be regaining some tracking in the economy, they are still lacking political leverage and earn on average less than men, says author Zhang Lijia at Wion. “According to Zhang, if China wants to improve the lives of women, it will first need to accord them equal status in society and politics.”

Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, is working on his next book documenting how writers, thinkers, and artists are dealing with the new, more repressive policies in China. He visited citizen journalist Zhang Shihe near Xi’an for an extensive interview. First, he describes Zhang’s position for the New York Review of Books.

China´s media industry might be one of the toughest to grasp for the outside world. All media are state-owned, very much restricted, and got recently into trouble because they have been extorting companies. Nothing is what you might expert. Some guidance is needed, and fortunately we have a range of media experts at the China Speakers Bureau.

State TV has been pulling a set of historical dramas from their channels because they were having a negative influence on their audiences, according to state media. Journalist Zhang Lijia, the author of Lotus, a novel, a bestseller on prostitution in China, understands the ratio behind this action, she tells in the South China Morning Post.

Author Zhang Lijia of Lotus, a novel on prostitution in today’s China talks ahead of her lecture at Spittoon Book Club talk January 19 at Timesdirect.tv in Beijing.

Social engagement has changed the Post-’95 generation in China beyond recognition. China veteran Tom Doctoroff dives into the ways brands can reach this complicated “slash generation” for Mumbrella Asia. How a new generation walks away from traditional conventions.

China’s central government has been cracking down on both Protestantism and the Islam over the past year. The direct future looks grim, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao at Foreign Affairs in an addition to a piece he wrote two years ago. The government can still go back to its pragmatic take on religion, but Johnson is not sure it will.

The Chinese government has raided a few popular underground churches, illustrating how it sees religion as a double-edged sword, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at NPR.

Google’s effort to enter China’s censored search market has failed a second time, first in China itself, now because of opposition in the US and Google staff. Former communication director Kaiser Kuo at China’s leading search engine Baidu looks back at how the internet company failed at its first move back in 2006, for the MIT Technology Review.