Journalist Ian Johnson gained most recently celebrity by his latest book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. Last week we got a peek into his research activities showing what immerging into a subject mean for a dedicated journalist like Ian.

Nationalism has been a double-edged sword in China’s domestic policy, where the leadership mostly tried to control this natural sentiment among its citizens. But Xi Jinping is clearly taking a different direction when it comes to his foreign policy, tells economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® to the South China Morning Post.

China’s deep Confucian roots do influence the way the internet has developed, says marketing veteran Tom Doctoroff, author of What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China’s Modern Consumer, to the South Morning Post. “I call it pride commerce, where there is the idea that you are what you buy … and that sharing your interests is a way to make your identity stronger,” Doctoroff said.

For a long time, working around the clock – from 9 to 9, six days a week known as the 996-rule – was common in China’s startup working culture. But those times are changing, says SOSV managing director William Bao Bean, a leading voice in China’s startup scene to the BBC. “China has moved from a society that was told what to do, to one that is doing what it wants to, and that’s also a millennial thing,” he says.

China’s economy went uphill dramatically over the past decades, but women profited less than men, writes author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel, on prostitution in China. It is time the government starts to enforce its own laws and regulations on gender discrimination, she tells in the South China Morning Post. 

Author and journalist Zhang Lijia, who recently published Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, will move to London from Beijing early May. Currently, she is finishing her upcoming book about left-behind children from migrant workers in China.

For foreign brands working on the China market is tough, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order. They can both over-localized and under-localize, he tells Hicom-Asia. Some of the pitfalls for foreign companies.

Journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, explains how learning English learned her how to free herself from the constraints of the past when she worked at a factory worker in Nanjing. 

Female students have been accusing their teachers and supervisors of sexual harassment at Chinese colleges and universities. Author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, tells NewsChina she is not really amazed.

Handing out hongbao’s when staff returns from Spring festival is one way how Chinese companies retain staff. WeChat expert Matthew Brennan joined Tencent’s CEO Tony Ma handing out hongbao’s last Friday in Shenzhen to some of this 43,000 employees, he reports on his LinkedIn page.