ZGBriefs | February 3, 2022

Featured Article

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.

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Special Section: Winter Olympics

The Olympics Return to Beijing: A ChinaFile Conversation (January 28, 2022, ChinaFile)
We asked contributors to comment on what the Beijing Games mean this year and to what extent they mark a significant juncture in China’s relations with the world.

Beijing warms up for the Winter Olympics – in pictures (January 31, 2022, The Guardian)
Excitement is running high before the opening on 4 February. Beijingers have been increasingly participating in winter sports since China was awarded the games.

How to Make Snow for a Winter Olympics in a Dry City (February 1, 2022, Sixth Tone)
Beijing and the mountains to its north — where some of the events, including skiing and snowboarding, will be held — are notoriously arid and see very little snowfall in winter. Moreover, temperatures in February could rise below freezing, and there’s a risk of storms that will dust the top layer of snow in sand. As a result, the Beijing games will rely entirely on artificial snow.

The Games Nobody Wants: How the Winter Olympics Became a Headache for China (February 1, 2022, Council on Foreign Relations)
The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were supposed to be a triumph for the Chinese government. But the COVID-19 pandemic and diplomatic boycotts have hampered its plans.

AP Photos: Life in the ‘bubble’ at the Beijing Olympics (February 2, 2022, AP)
The goal? To keep those attending the Games completely separate from the wider Chinese population, all while keeping infections to a minimum inside the bubble.

Alpine skiing hill at Beijing Olympics is a new test for all (February 2, 2022, AP)
This track is new to everyone because Beijing is not a regular stop on the World Cup circuit, the usual pre-Olympics test events were called off because of the coronavirus pandemic and teams agreed to not check it out unless everyone could.

China’s finely crafted web of digital surveillance for the Beijing Olympics has been years in the making(February 2, 2022, Washington Post) (subscription required)
The Games are an opportunity for the government to upgrade already extensive tools to track and control the population.

Shortened Olympic torch relay starts for Beijing Games (February 2, 2022, AP)
The three-day torch relay for the Beijing Olympics, shortened considerably because of concerns about the coronavirus, started Wednesday with an 80-year-old former speedskater carrying the flame. The relay opened at the Olympic Forest Park. Luo Zhihuan, the country’s first internationally competitive speedskater, ran the first leg.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

China’s Communist Party Quietly Inserts Itself Into Everyday Life (January 31, 2022, The Wall Street Journal) (subscription required)
A sprawling propaganda campaign that has gone virtually unnoticed outside the country is taking place in ‘civilization’ centers, new report finds.

Safeguards for Xi’s Stratospheric Rise – China Media Project (February 2, 2022, China Media Project)
Deng Xiaoping’s “Four Basic Principles” and “Four Modernizations,” Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents,” Hu Jintao’s “Three Closenesses.” […]  But this year we can at least simplify matters by focusing on two crucial catchphrases: the “Two Establishes” (两个确立) and the “Two Safeguards” (两个维护). Taken together their import is simple: Xi Jinping will continue leading China beyond 2022.

Religion

Capturing Chinese Stories (January 28, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
What if the flow of Christian resources, theology, leadership, and insight is also turning, such that the Chinese church has a fresh opportunity to serve at the forefront of these things and the church in the West can listen and glean and learn from the faithful in China? The Chinese church, and Chinese Christians, have much to offer the rest of the world, not the least of which is their stories.

What I Learned About Ascension Theology (January 31, 2022, China Partnership)
Chinese Christians have not adopted a victim identity. Instead, they understand that their identity is servants of the king. Any opposition that flows from their faith is actually opposition to the kingship of Christ. 

Red Packets and Grace (January 31, 2022, ChinaSource)
In this video blog, produced by our friends at CantoSense, Hannah and I’Ching discuss memories of their family celebrations growing up and some of the special foods that are eaten on the holiday. They also give an overview of other customs and how they and their Christian families use these customs as outreach opportunities.

An Engineering Student at Tsinghua University Comes to Faith (February 1, 2022, Chinese Church Voices)
Among all religions, I detested Christianity the most. I thought that Chinese Christianity was a product of the Opium Wars, a kind of cultural invasion, and a tool used by Westerners to rule the minds of the Chinese people. The moment Christianity came to China, it was associated with the nation’s shame. Affected by this view, I naturally treated Christianity as an enemy.

China Ministry and Transformational Development (1): The End of an Era? (February 2, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Over the last few years, stringent enforcement and an increasingly anti-foreign mood have combined with these new regulations to make it harder and harder for expatriate development ministries to partner with local entities, let alone operate their own independent relief or development projects. Visas for development workers are increasingly hard to secure, while funds from overseas are closely watched and very difficult to process. 

Society / Life

The vanishing slow trains of China (January 28, 2022, Financial Times)
The time-honoured ritual of a long, slow, train journey home for Chinese New Year is under threat — both from Covid restrictions and the rapid expansion of high-speed rail.

Xi’an lockdown: how social organizations joined forces to fight the pandemic (January 29, 2022, China Development Brief)
On Dec 23, the Shaanxi Provincial Social Organization Administration issued a proposal for pandemic prevention and control to social organizations across the province. In a single day, more than 50 social organizations and over 200 volunteers united to launch a “joint action”. Their initiative centered around demand, resources and action, and the organizations set up eight sub teams, including groups for information, community connection, volunteer services, pandemic prevention, psychological support, and donations.

Many Chinese Are Missing Another Spring Festival Reunion (January 31, 2022, Sixth Tone)
There’s a saying in China that people always return home for the Spring Festival, no matter the distance. But the pandemic has changed that for many who had no choice but to cancel plans to reunite with their family for the third year in a row.

Spring Festival Gala Gets a Taste of Standup Comedy (February 1, 2022, Sixth Tone)
China’s biggest annual television event, the Spring Festival Gala, included standup comedy segments for the first time in its decades-long history amid the genre’s growing popularity.

Science / Technology

China’s Mars Orbiter Sends Back Selfie Video for the Lunar New Year (February 1, 2022, PetaPixel) 
The Chinese Mars orbiter Tianwen-1 has sent back a selfie video that shows its orbit around Red Planet. The clip was published in celebration of the Lunar New Year and shows both the orbiter and Mars below it as it zooms around the planet.

History / Culture

Art of the Tiger (January 31, 2022, Sixth Tone)
Fierce, majestic, tame: Depictions of tigers have changed over centuries in Chinese art.

The Tatsu Maru incident in the waning years of the Qing (February 2, 2022, Sup China)
In 1908, Qing customs officials boarded the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru to seize weapons allegedly earmarked for revolutionaries. The ship’s captain objected. The drawn-out diplomatic dispute that followed made international headlines.

Travel / Food

The 8 largest lesser-visited Chinese cities that should be on your radar (January 28, 2022, Matador Network)
And the largest cities in China do more than just shatter records — they are centers of culinary culture, history, and art, and make great destinations for travelers looking for unexpected experiences.

Photo Essay: Beijing, A City of Doors (January 31, 2022, The Beijinger)
Beijing was once a city of gates and doors, traces of which can still be found all around the capital today. Way back when, walls and gates of all sorts sought to manage movement within the capital, with the city eventually split into a Chinese city, Manchu city, Imperial city, and Forbidden city at its center.

Photos: Awe and Solitude in China’s Vast, Empty West (January 31, 2022, Radii China)
Much of West China is barren, desert, and high plateau, home to less than 5% of the country’s population and a diverse spread of ethnicities.

In this part of China, hands—not machines—define the rhythm of life (February 2, 2022, National Geographic) (registration required)
Some villages in the country’s mountainous Yunnan Province have not yet adopted mechanized modernity.

Resources

Christianity in Tang China (The Database of Religious History)
Christians in Tang China gave a Chinese name for Christianity: Jingjiao 景教, a term translated as “the Luminous Religion/Teaching” or “the Illustrious Religion” or “the Brilliant Teaching”.

Christianity in Asian American History: a Candler Foundry Online Short Course (TimTseng.net)
This short course will provide an overview of the presence and influence of Christianity (primarily Protestantism) in Asian American history.

Events

Catholicism, Family, and Asian Societies (National University of Singapore)
This conference investigates how Catholic identities influence the composition and values of contemporary Asian families, the ethical dilemmas they confront and the political contexts in which they engage. Catholicism in Asia is often presented as the religion of a minority, and little attention is given to the ways this world religion impacts the local social fabric. Date: February 10-22, 2022 / Venue: Online via Zoom

Pray for China

February 6 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
On Feb. 6, 1866, George Stott (曹雅直), one of the first two missionaries to be sent by the China Inland Mission, arrived in Shanghai. He and his wife Grace Ciggie Stott were instrumental in planting the church in Wenzhou, which has become known as the Jerusalem of China for its strong church with a missionary vision. Pray for the hundreds of Chinese Christians who have gone in cross-cultural mission fields to serve with joy of the Lord as their strength. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10