ZGBriefs | February 10, 2022

Featured Article

Life inside the Olympics bubble: Limbo between China and the world (February 8, 2022, The Los Angeles Times)
Three rows of fencing, two guard patrols and multiple “no crossing” signs mark the ominous border between the 2022 Winter Olympics and the rest of its host city. It feels like a parallel universe of ID-assigned bar codes, throat swabs and room service delivered by swift staff wearing goggles and full protective gear.

Special Section: Winter Olympics

Photos: Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (February 4, 2022, MPR)

Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony – in pictures (February 4, 2022, The Guardian)

No snow? No problem. How Beijing made the white stuff in time for the Olympics (February 7, 2022, NPR) 
Placing ski and snowboarding venues in regularly dry climates turned out to be a small obstacle for Olympics organizers. With the right technology, the perfect ski conditions are just a button away.

Some lucky, local Chinese fans made it into the stands for the 2022 Winter Olympics (February 8, 2022, NPR)
Olympic organizers have opened their closed-loop Winter Games just enough to allow specially chosen local Chinese residents in to watch some events. Now that Games officials believe COVID-19 is properly contained within the bubble, they may add more.

A fluffy panda mascot is all the rage at the Winter Olympics (February 9, 2022, NPR)
One of the stars of this year’s Winter Olympic Games is its mascot: a fluffy panda named Bing Dwen Dwen. The stuffed animal version has become so sought after that people are camping overnight to buy it.

Winter Olympics 2022: Inside the odd Olympic journey of China’s men’s hockey team (February 9, 2022, ESPN)
They imported players like Smith and former NHL players Brandon Yip, Jake Chelios and Spencer Foo. They hired hockey luminaries like Wayne Gretzky, Phil Esposito and Mike Keenan to lend their program gravitas. They spent countless millions on hockey infrastructure and player development.

China’s naturalised Olympians walk fine line between love and scorn (February 9, 2022, Yahoo! News)
Eileen Gu and Beverly Zhu were both born and raised in the US before deciding to represent China, but their contrasting fortunes at the Beijing Olympics highlight the fine line between love and condemnation for the host nation’s naturalised athletes. Freestyle skier Gu has inspired ecstasy and adulation among Chinese fans, but figure skater Zhu has endured a torrent of online abuse after two blunder-filled performances.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Can China Ever Reopen? (February 5, 2022, The Atlantic)
Xi Jinping’s first and only priority is political security, making a quick reopening almost untenable.

China’s Domestic Challenges, With Ian Johnson (February 8, 2022,  Council on Foreign Relations)
Ian Johnson, CFR’s Stephen A. Schwarzman senior fellow for China studies, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss economic, political, and demographic developments within China.

The Chinese Legislature’s Hidden Agenda (February 9, 2022, The Diplomat)
Since 2020 the NPC has been adopting more and more bills without prior notification, jeopardizing earlier moves toward transparency.

Religion

5 Lessons from Persecuted Christians in China (January 7, 2022, The Gospel Coalition)
For the watching world, including believers who share the same faith with our brothers and sisters in China, we have much to learn from them. Here are five lessons we can learn through their sacrifices.

7 Encouraging Trends of Global Christianity in 2022 (January 31, 2022, Lifeway Research)
And if your church has plateaued or is even shrinking, you can be tempted to see the global church in a similar light. But the latest statistics from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary can give a better perspective on Christianity in 2022.

The Church in China: It’s Complicated (February 1, 2022, OSCAR)
Whenever I field questions about the church in China, or anything related to China for that matter, I invariably find myself responding, “It’s complicated.” I encountered the truth of this assessment during my last trip to Beijing in December 2019.

Meditations on WeChat’s Top Christian Blessings for Chinese New Year (February 4, 2022, Christianity Today)
Lunar New Year is not only a festival of reunion, joy, blessing, and warmth for the Chinese people, but also a great time for Chinese Christians in China and overseas to actively share their faith with their fellow countrymen.

Reading Tea Leaves from the 2021 National Religious Work Conference (February 4, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Such national gatherings kick off a cascade of meetings at lower levels where officials who “manage” religion on the ground scrutinize top leaders’ speeches, policies, and other documents. So, if we want to get a preview of what will happen and what has happened in the recent past, “reading the tea leaves” can pay off. In this blogpost, I compare the speeches given by Xi Jinping in 2021 and in 2018 at the respective national eligious affairs conferences.

Catholicism’s Overlooked Importance in Asia (February 4, 2022, The Diplomat)
Catholicism – whether embraced or rejected – has played a crucial role in defining identity in Asia.

As Korea Moves to Deport ‘Mayflower’ Church, Chinese Christians Debate Dodging the Cross (February 8, 2022, Christianity Today)
However, the SHRC’s response to persecution has raised questions among other house churches in China that have remained and continue to endure the new difficult reality that comes with being an unregistered church in today’s China. While many are sympathetic to the congregation’s desire for freedom to worship, others are critical of their corporate decision to flee.

Preparing for the New Internet Religious Information Measures (February 8, 2022, Chinese Church Voices)
These measures are to go into effect on March 1 and, if strictly enforced as written, have the potential to significantly restrict online activities such as religious training, publishing sermons, linking religious content, and broadcasting live or recorded religious events. In this article from Gospel Times suggestions are given for ministering when the measures are implemented.

China Ministry and Transformational Development (2): The End of an Era? (February 9, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Are expatriate China workers humble enough to remain faithful? Can we set aside our own vocational ambitions and serve in the background, happy to play whatever role God gives us no matter how small?

Society / Life

Going Home for Spring Festival, in Rented Luxury Cars (February 2, 2022, Sixth Tone)
While some wanted to avoid the crowds amid COVID-19 outbreaks, others wanted to show off their success.

Economics / Trade / Business

‘No light at the end of the tunnel’: Americans join Hong Kong’s business exodus (February 6, 2022, The Guardian)
According to a recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce, 44% of members were thinking of leaving Hong Kong due to the territory’s strict pandemic rules. Of the companies surveyed, 26% said they were considering relocation.

Infographic: American Companies That Failed in China (February 9, 2022, Visual Capitalist)
Despite the size and potential of the market, China is not an easy place for foreign businesses to enter. As this infographic shows, many of America’s biggest names eventually admitted defeat.

Health / Environment

Chinese Scientists Have Designed a 4-Minute COVID-19 Test (February 9, 2022, Sixth Tone)
Polymerase chain reaction testing is currently considered the gold standard in diagnosing COVID-19, but results usually take hours.

History / Culture

Nixon’s visit to China, 50 years on (February 5, 2022, The Economist) (subscription required)
Half a century ago Richard Nixon took a gamble that made history. On a cold, hazy February morning, he landed in Beijing, the capital of a communist regime that America did not officially recognise, to meet China’s ailing tyrant, Mao Zedong.

The Silk Road Traders Who Traveled From Kathmandu to Lhasa (February 9, 2022, Sixth Tone)
The trans-Himalayan trade was a complex endeavor built on the backs of a small class of cross-border traders — and the women whose sacrifices made their work possible.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

How China Captured Hollywood (February 8, 2022, The Atlantic)
Unbeknownst to most moviegoers, studios were removing scenes and dialogue from scripts and finished movies to appease Chinese censors—scrubbing any production of plot points that brushed up against sensitive Chinese history or made the country look anything less than a modern, sophisticated world power. Even more disturbing than the movies being changed were the ones not getting made at all, for fear of angering Chinese officials.

Living Cross-culturally

Drawing Boundaries amidst Ambiguity (February 7, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
What is the most important thing I would want someone going to China to know? This month as I celebrate my twelfth Lunar New Year living in the Middle Kingdom, I find myself reflecting upon this question. I imagine sitting down with a like-minded friend who is preparing to go abroad and wishing for them to know, more than anything else, of the immense ambiguity they will soon live within and the necessary boundaries that will help them thrive.

Books

Cross-Cultural Encounters: China and the Reformed Church in America – Book Review (February 5, 2022, Global China Center)
What was it like to be a Christian missionary in China? What were the missionaries like as people? How did they relate to the Chinese among whom they lived and with whom they served? Were they tools of foreign imperialism, or humble servants of Christ and ambassadors of his kingdom? How did they cope with the devastating wars and tumultuous political and social changes that swept over China in the modern period? And what did they do, in actuality? Cross-Cultural Encounters offers insightful answers to these questions through biographies of the lives of a few American missionaries in one province of China.

My Top Recommendations for Honor and Shame Books (February 8, 2022, Jackson Wu)
I chose the works below based on their quality, significance, and accessibility. Therefore, please take no offense if I did not include a (your) book. You haven’t “lost face,” even if I’m not giving you face in this post.

Opening China – Book Review (Revisited) (February 9, 2022, Global China Center)
Then as now, evangelical Christians believed that more freedom for commerce would also entail increased liberty for foreign messengers and their converts to spread and receive the gospel of Christ. 

Pray for China

February 16 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
Johannes Avetaranian (阿维塔兰尼恩) was the first Protestant missionary to reside in Xinjiang. He was born as Muhammad Shukri Efendi in 1861 and became a mullah in Turkey. On Feb. 28, 1885, he was baptized as a Christian, with his new surname meaning “son of the gospel.” He served in Kashgar, Xinjiang as a missionary for the Swedish Mission Covenant Church from 1892-1897 and translated the New Testament into Uyghur. The church in Kashgar had grown to 133 members by 1933—mostly Uyghur and Kirghiz—but Muslim warlords then decimated the church and eventually expelled the last Swedish missionaries in 1938. Today there are a few hundred Uyghur believers in Kazakhstan and China. Missions historian Ralph Covell has written in The Liberating Gospel in China that, “Xinjiang's Muslim peoples remain among the most resistant unreached peoples of China.” Pray for a new generation of missionaries in Xinjiang to follow in the footsteps of Johannes Avetaranian and to persevere in speaking of the things they have seen and heard. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Acts. 4:20