Religious groups in China have had different degrees of success, depending on their relations with the authorities. Among the Buddhist Fo Guang Shan, has been the most successful, writes author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in the New York Times. Has Fo Guang Shan changed China, or is China changing Buddhism, he asks.Read More →
Europe and America are getting the message: they are behind China in e-commerce. China veteran William Bao Bean tells an European audience at Medialaan in Brussels it is not about technology, but about the speed of adoption of the users.Read More →
A relative slow growth, a rapidly aging population in an unprecedented demographic transition, and no serious social safety net. Author Howard French of Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power calls at the Asia Society the next 10, 15 years the most dangerous for China.Read More →
Shocking footage of a traffic accident, where nobody came to the rescue of the female victim, triggered off a national debate on the state of morality in China. Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao looks at the different viewpoints of the debate, for the New York Times.Read More →
The Times Literary Supplement reports on an evening with author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China recently in London. One of the subjects: how did Chinese women fare under the market economy, introduce by Deng Xiaoping. About the government as a big boys’ club.Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao explains at the acceptance of the Shorenstein for journalism award how after 100 years of self doubt and insecurity, religion revived. Folk religion, more than internationally established ones, has become a vibrant new source of inspiration.Read More →
Often reviewers tend to look at the emergence of world religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, when they summarize Ian Johnson’s book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. But the most moving chapter is that on the 80 pilgrim associations from Beijing, writes professor Richard Madsen in the Washington Post.Read More →
Prostitution is a mirror of society, tells Beijing-based author Zhang Lijia at the BBC. Her book Lotus: A Novel shows some of China’s most urgent problems related to prostitution: migration, the gap between men and women and moral decline.Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson documented in this book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao how an estimated 350 million Chinese citizens found solace in religion, despite a ambiguous governments. In TimesOut Shanghai he tells how he feels that movement will develop in the future.Read More →
Sarah Mellors reviews for the LA Review of Books Zhang Lijia’s Lotus: A Novel. The novel is a telling story of how China’s society works, she says, and both main characters Lotus and Bing illustrate many issues: rural-urban divide, economic development without political liberalization, the post-Mao moral vacuum and money worshiping, and the tension between so-called traditional Chinese values and modern concerns.Read More →
An estimated 350 million Chinese are hooked to different religions, looking for a way to deal with the lack of morality of their current society. The Spectator reviews positively Ian Johnson’s book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, and describes a major change in China’s cultural fabric.Read More →
Most of China has left poverty behind, but people are still not happy. The search for moral values is now taking over the desire among China’s citizens, says author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in PRI. How turning to religion can change the country.Read More →