ZGBriefs | December 26, 2024

Featured Article

63 Chinese Cuisines: The Complete Guide (November 19, 2024, Chinese Cooking Demystified)
I don’t think it’s exactly fair to tear down The Big Eight without building something to replace it. After all, it’s still a better starting point than One Country, One Cuisine! It’s just incomplete. But then… if not eight, how many cuisines are there? I’ve never seen anyone attempt to count. So, we attempted to count.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Xi Jinping Visits Macau to Mark 25 Years of Chinese Rule (December 18, 2024, Reuters)
Located on China’s southern coast, Macau returned to Chinese rule on Dec. 20, 1999, governed under the same “one country, two systems” formula as Hong Kong. Beijing has consistently praised Macau for its loyalty and stability, with more than half of its 700,000 population immigrating from China in recent decades.

Sweden Says China Denied Request for Prosecutors to Board Ship Linked to Severed Cables (December 23, 2024, The Guardian)
The Yi Peng 3 left the waters it had been anchored in since last month on Saturday – despite an ongoing investigation. The ship was tracked sailing over the two fibre-optic cables, one between Sweden and Lithuania, and the other linking Helsinki and Germany, at around the time that they were cut on 17 and 18 November in Swedish territorial waters close to the Swedish islands of Gotland and Öland.

Hong Kong offers rewards for arrest of six activists abroad (December 24, 2024, BBC)
The group – which includes a former district councillor, an actor, and a YouTuber – have been lobbying for more democracy in the territory. All have been accused of violating the city’s national security law.

Religion

Xiamen: Longing for Depth (December 19, 2024, China Partnership)
If Xiamen churches are to grow and mature, they need to reflect deeply on Christ’s goodness. As one pastor shared, he is praying for “discipleship within the church, and evangelism and missions outside.” While sobering, this critical look at what the Xiamen church needs can encourage us to pray for Xiamen believers and for the church in China.

Ministering Cross-Culturally: A 150 Percent Person (December 20, 2024, ChinaSource)
You and I will never be a 200 percent person. But there are enough shared values and beliefs in divergent cultures for us to appreciate and begin to understand another culture, always as an outsider, but with a growing capacity to respond to new expectations and values in culturally appropriate ways.

China’s Catholics in 2024: A Year in Review (December 22, 2024, The Catholic Reporter)
If the 1950s and ’60s were an era mostly of state persecution in China, 2024 was a year mostly of state control over the Church.

Stories of Life-Changing Encounters in Church on Christmas (December 22, 2024, China Christian Daily)
On Christmas Eve in 2009, he wandered the streets after work, with nothing particular to do. He noticed a church packed with people and, out of curiosity, went in. The warm reception from the church staff and the cozy atmosphere of the Christmas Eve service deeply moved him. Although he didn’t quite understand what the pastor was saying, he was infected by the fervent atmosphere when the call to respond came during the church service, and resolutely went up to receive the pastor’s blessing.

Xiamen: Pray for New Testimonies of God’s Power (December 23, 2024, China Partnership)
There are not good testimonies to share with others. We keep repeating the testimony of the older generations – but in our generation of younger churches, it doesn’t seem like there are many stories to tell. Pray for us to have more deeply rooted, godly lives.

Christmas Celebrated in China’s Christian Communities on Sunday (December 23, 2024, China Christian Daily)
Many churches have marked Christmas in advance as Christmas Day, which falls on Wednesday this year, is not an official holiday in China. It is said that many house churches have celebrated the festival days or even a month ago due to safety concerns, while a large percentage of registered churches observed it last Sunday. 

Challenges and Opportunities for the Pulpit in China’s Urban House Churches (December 23, 2024, Chinese Church Voices)
With the rapid progress of industrialization, urbanization, informatization, and globalization, on the one hand, many new urban house churches have sprung up and thrived like bamboo shoots after the rain. On the other hand, some urban house churches have gradually shrunk, stagnated, and even split apart. It is the responsibility of this generation of pastors to face the challenges of urban house churches head-on and, through faith and prayer, rely on the Holy Spirit to respond to these challenges.

Society / Life

The Woman Who Found ‘Home’ in an Unfinished Building (December 18, 2024, Sixth Tone)
Three years ago, 28-year-old Qi Qi (pseudonym) purchased a home in the Star Mall apartment complex in Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province. To this day, the construction project remains unfinished. However, in her desperation, Qi decided to move into her new home, despite at the time having no gas, electricity, or running water, and relatively little security. This is her story.

Fleeing Xi’s China: Following the Trail of Migrants Trying to Reach Australia Through Indonesia (December 18, 2024, The Guardian)
The men are allegedly among a growing number of Chinese fleeing their home country, where rising authoritarianism under the rule of Xi Jinping and the difficulties of a faltering economy has prompted some people to look for a way out. The phenomenon has become so widely discussed online that it has its own nickname: runxue, or run philosophy, a coded term for emigration.

CDT 2024 Year-End Roundup: Quotes of the Year (Part 1) (December 18-19, 2024, China Digital Times)

CDT 2024 Year-End Roundup: Quotes of the Year (Part 2) (December 18-19, 2024, China Digital Times)
CDT’s “Quotes of the Year” are a mirror of China’s national mood in ten comments. The five quotes presented in this post (the first of two) reflect displeasure with coerced rosy perspectives on China’s economy; despair over senseless deaths observed in silence; the enduring importance of Tiananmen remembrances; disillusionment with the country’s “Red” turn under Xi; and anger over the raising of the national retirement age. The quotes—all translated from Chinese—are representative of broader strains of commentary that CDT editors have observed over the past year. They are organized chronologically, with a brief explanation for context after the original quote.

Gender Disparities and Divorce in China (December 19, 2024, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
“In divorce lawsuits, women often walk away without any judicial remedies for domestic violence, mothers often end up losing child custody, and there’s a pretty good chance that women on the verge of divorce end up giving up their property rights.”

China’s 2024 in Photos (December 20, 2024, Sixth Tone)
The year 2024 began with a rare blizzard that disrupted Spring Festival travel plans across China and ended with a major consumption push. In the interim, Zheng Qinwen’s underdog run to gold at the Olympics ignited a tennis craze, the success of “Black Myth: Wukong” rocked the gaming industry, and the country’s new energy vehicle industry went into overdrive. Here are 30 photos that capture the moments that defined China’s 2024, as selected by Sixth Tone’s photo editors.

‘A sense of freedom’: China’s small bookshops relocate across the world (December 24, The Guardian)
As stores that were spaces for open discussion have been forced to close, new ventures spring up overseas.

Economics / Trade / Business

China’s Real Estate Crisis: Why the Younger Generation Is Not Buying Houses Anymore (December 21, 2024, The Diplomat)
Go to college, find a job, buy a house, get married: For decades, homeownership has been seen as an essential part of life in China. Based on that long-standing truth, analysts are forecasting optimistic outcomes for China’s housing market. However, all this may come to an end if China’s younger generation ceases to acquire residential properties.

Health / Environment

Can China Lead the Global Energy Transition? (December 22, 2024, East Asia Forum)
A ‘Global South Green Development Plan’ or Green Marshall Plan could leverage China’s industry leadership in green energy sectors to provide both technology and funding in order to facilitate the energy transition in the Global South, while simultaneously stabilising China’s own economy.

Travel / Food 

Cotti Coffee’s Success Story: Is Coffee Becoming the New Tea? (December 19, 2024, ChinaSkinny)
Under the theme “Hard But Right Thing,” Li delivered a keynote address on Cotti Coffee’s meteoric rise. Founded in August 2022, the brand is barely two years old but has already emerged as a formidable player. In this short span, Cotti Coffee has opened over 10,000 stores across 28 countries, including Thailand, Australia, and most recently Qatar, where the 10,000th store launched in October.

China is Building the World’s Largest Artificial Island Airport (December 19, 2024, CNN)
Currently under construction off the country’s northeast coast, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport will eventually cover a 20-square-kilometer (7.7-square-mile) island with four runways and a 900,000-square-meter (969,000 sq ft) passenger terminal, according to an airport statement. Its operators aim to handle 80 million passengers per year across 540,000 flights, with the first phase due to open in 2035.

Science and Technology

How Chinese Science and Technology Have Influenced the West…and Vice Versa (December 23, 2024, South China Morning Post)
There are people who believe that China only has traditions in technology, but not in science. However, in fields like astronomy, China actually has a very long tradition of astronomical observation dating back more than 2,000 years. China has the longest and most complete records of astronomical observations, including solar and lunar eclipses, and records of stars, meteors and supernovas. Europeans do not have the same level of observational astronomy records, so Chinese records have actually had an influence on the West.

AI Leadership Depends on What is Measured (December 17, 2024, China Brief Archives – Jamestown Foundation)
In November 2024, the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) organization SuperCLUE, which describes itself as an “independent, 3rd-party AGI evaluation organization (独立第三方AGI测评机构)” released its “Chinese Large Model Benchmark 2024 October Report” The report offers insights into the global state of large language models (LLMs) and captures trends in the current AI landscape. It uses the SuperCLUE framework to assess the progress and challenges faced by models from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and international leaders.

‘Dream Bullets’, Ghost Radars, Hypersonic Gliders: 12 China Science Breakthroughs in 2024 (December 19, 2024, South China Morning Post)
From a giant sphere for tracking neutrinos to a first trace of lunar water, here are some of the major science developments of the year

History

Alive in death, 50 years of Terracotta army discovery (December 24, 2024, ʼ)
The Terracotta Army stood guard in the dark for nearly 2,300 years. Only in March 1974 did the warrior figures come to light when local farmers in Xian, western China, discovered them. But where did they come from? And who was their creator?

Language / Language Learning

Don’t Use Mnemonics for Everything When Learning Chinese (December 23, 2024, Hacking Chinese)
Mnemonics are clever memory techniques you can use to learn and remember more, but this doesn’t mean that you should always use them. If you do, you will end up spending more time on mnemonics than you do engaging with the Chinese language. You have many tools in your learning arsenal, so don’t bring out the nukes unless you have to. They are expensive and cause collateral damage.

Pray for China

December 25 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Christmas Day in 1989, Tiananmen student leader Zhang Boli (张伯笠牧师) became a Christian while hiding in a shed in Heilongjiang during a blizzard. Zhang was on the “most wanted” list for two years before finally escaping from China. He later became the pastor of Harvest Chinese Christian Church in Fairfax, Virginia. As Christians celebrate the incarnation, pray that we would fully appreciate the reality that God became flesh, empowering us to build His kingdom here and now. “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.” (1 Corinthians 3:10)

Pray for China in 2025 (December 24, 2025, ChinaSource)
Prayer is and has long been a hallmark of churches in China. As we enter a new year, we at ChinaSource are committing to a renewed emphasis on praying for China. What are some of the things that we want to see happen in China, in the lives of those we serve there, and in our own hearts and minds?