Jon Kuert
ZGBriefs | June 27, 2024
In China, Even Stanford Grads Are Fighting for Civil Service Jobs (June 19, 2024, Sixth Tone) China’s intense competition for civil service jobs appeared to hit new heights this week after it emerged that a world top university’s graduate had chosen to take a job with an obscure township government in the eastern Anhui province.
ZGBriefs | June 20, 2024
Podcast—Peter Hessler On His New Book, “Other Rivers: A Chinese Education” (June 13, 2024, Sinica Podcast) This week on Sinica, the highly-regarded writer Peter Hessler joins to talk about his new book, out July 9: Other Rivers: A Chinese Education. Over 20 years after teaching with the Peace Corps in Fuling (the subject of his first book, Rivertown, Pete returns to China to teach at Sichuan University in Chengdu. He writes about the two cohorts of students, with whom he has maintained extensive contacts, to offer fascinating insights into how China has changed across this momentous period with touching, deeply human stories.
ZGBriefs | June 13, 2024
A Cartoon Cat Has Been Vexing China’s Censors—Now He Says They Are On his Tail (June 9, 2024, BBC News) On X, unfettered by China’s censors, yet accessible through virtual private networks, Mr. Li’s following grew. But it only really exploded, to more than a million, in late 2022 during the White Paper protests against China’s punishing zero-Covid measures.
ZGBriefs | June 6, 2024
When studying the current state of Christianity in the People’s Republic of China, Western observers often quickly fixate on the controls imposed by the current government. Only one Protestant church is legally recognized—the Three Self Patriotic Movement—and therefore many Christians have chosen to worship in house churches that are underground. The government regulates baptisms and prohibits or closely monitors contact with foreign Christians and churches. All of this seems so foreign to our Western concepts of religious freedom. But is it China or America that is the anomaly?
ZGBriefs | May 30, 2024
Everything You Need to Know about Sight (March 7, 2024, Angel Studios) Sight, starring Terry Chen and Greg Kinnear, follows the true story of Dr. Ming Wang, a Chinese immigrant who defies all odds to become a world-renowned eye surgeon. Drawing upon the grit and determination he gained from a turbulent uprising in his upbringing, Dr. Wang sets out to restore the sight of a blind orphan.
ZGBriefs | May 23, 2024
Laugh in Translation: Shanghainese Comedy Stands Up to the Mainstream (May 17, 2024, Sixth Tone) Amid a surge of interest in local culture, young Chinese are reconnecting with their heritage through stand-up comedy in various dialects. Comedians are now drawing packed houses and even taking their acts overseas.
ZGBriefs | May 16, 2024
China’s Chang’e 6 Moon Mission is a Game Changer (May 13, 2024, The Diplomat) China’s bid to return lunar samples from the far side of the Moon will have long-term strategic and geopolitical implications.
ZGBriefs | May 9, 2024
Red Renaissance (May 6, 2024, China Media Project) In early February, Chinese media teemed with stories of cultural festivities in rural villages countrywide. In a “rural bookroom” in Xinjiang’s Ha’ermodun Village, a series of events “enriched the spiritual lives of villagers,” according to a local news release. More than 4,000 kilometers away, in Fujian’s Shuqiao Village, residents held a “Rural Spring Festival Gala” featuring song and dance performances. These and thousands of similar events across China’s vast rural hinterland are part of a concerted push to achieve what the Chinese Communist Party leadership has called the “revitalization of rural culture.”
A Deserved Hearing
A Reader Responds to the Summer 2023 CSQ
As I read through the various submissions [in the summer 2023 CSQ], I realized that the topic of the Pentecostal church in China cannot be ignored, should be explored and could be instructive.
Supporting Article
China Never Left Us
A campus ministry worker shares how, after living in China and heeding God’s call, he and his wife began a ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic that provides opportunities for Chinese students studying in the US to experience local places and connect with local people.