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Featured Article
Keith & Kristyn Getty Inspired by 1931 Missionary to China Song for New Album (May 26, 2016, The Christian Post)
The upcoming album by The Getty’s was inspired by the hymn, "Facing a Task Unfinished." The original song was written by China Inland Mission worker (now OMF International) Frank Houghton in 1931 as he reflected on the Great Commission and the scripture Matthew 24:14, which encouraged him to dedicate his life to sharing the Gospel with people in China.
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Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs
China to send nuclear-armed submarines into Pacific amid tensions with US (May 26, 2016, The Guardian)
The Chinese military is poised to send submarines armed with nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, arguing that new US weapons systems have so undermined Beijing’s existing deterrent force that it has been left with no alternative. Chinese military officials are not commenting on the timing of a maiden patrol, but insist the move is inevitable.
Q. and A.: Ben Hillman and Gray Tuttle on Ethnic Unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet (May 26, 2016, The New York Times)
In an interview, Mr. Hillman and Mr. Tuttle discussed the grievances behind recent protests and the likelihood of their resolution.
South China Sea fears grow before tribunal rules on disputed islands (May 29, 2016, The Guardian)
Fears are growing that there will be a sharp rise in tensions in the South China Sea in the next few weeks after an international tribunal delivers a ruling on disputed islands and reefs that Beijing has said it will reject.
Chinese engineer and driver injured in Karachi separatist bombing (May 30, 2016, BBC)
A Chinese engineer and his driver have been injured in a bombing in Karachi that was claimed by a little-known separatist group vowing to sabotage China’s multibillion-dollar investment programme in the country.
Q. and A.: David Shambaugh on ‘China’s Future’ (May 30, 2016, The New York Times)
In an interview, he discussed China’s internal weaknesses, its parallels with other Leninist states and the reasons behind a growing disenchantment with China among American policy makers and analysts.
The Cultural Revolution will not be revived (May 31, 2016, East Asia Forum)
The Cultural Revolution taught the Party, and its leaders, fundamental lessons about what the Party would need to do to survive: stay in control; limit popular empowerment; institutionalise political structures; dominate societal discourse; focus the country on economic development; and let the people pursue material wealth.
Ding Zilin, Founder of Tiananmen Mothers, is Silenced by Chinese Police (June 1, 2015, The New York Times)
Sounding frail, Ms. Ding, a 79-year-old former philosophy professor, did not detail why she could not be interviewed. But before hanging up she added, “There are people watching and checking at my door.”
Xi Jinping, China’s President, Unexpectedly Meets With North Korean Envoy (June 1, 2016, The New York Times)
Mr. Xi greeted the envoy, Ri Su-yong, the day after North Korea tried unsuccessfully to fire an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Their encounter also followed the news that Mr. Ri had brought to China a stern message insisting that the North would not stop trying developing nuclear arms.
Religion
Pastors Talk About the Decline in Church Attendance in Rural China (May 25, 2016, China Christian Daily)
One pastor from Kunming said that "When I deliver sermons in rural areas, I often see rural churches which are desolate and required the need to preaches and followers as the younger generation are now starting to move out of these areas to look for work in the cities.
A Light that Cannot Be Hidden (May 30, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
Drawing from his book China’s Urban Christians: A Light that Cannot Be Hidden, Fulton talked about how the kingdom of God has spread in China, despite difficult circumstances.
A Fascinating New Take on the Jesuit Missionaries to China (May 31, 2016, America Magazine)
I’m always a little leery of religious documentaries. It’s very hard for religious groups not to turn their stories into either a tale of “church triumphant amidst the simple/violent natives” or a kind of children’s story hagiography which reads closer to Santa Claus (but with wounds!) than the complexity of the person or their context. But I must say I really enjoyed these films, which Kuangchi has now made available internationally on DVD under the title “Thriving on Difference: Jesuits and Their Engagement with China.”
Why China Fears Christianity (May 31, 2016, The Diplomat)
Sixty-eight million followers equates to approximately 5 percent of the Chinese population, which makes Christianity an increasingly influential proportion of society – and a source of consternation for China.
Online Devotionals (May 31, 2016, Chinese Church Voices)
In January of 2016, Lixian Church, located in Panjin, Liaoning province launched a series of daily video devotionals called “Life Manna.” (生命吗哪) Each episode lasts three to four minutes, with Elder Yang Lijun presenting the devotional.
Death of Henan Pastor’s Wife Points to Nationwide Problem (June 1, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
If there are parallels between the tragedy of Ding Cuomei in Henan and the hundreds of crosses removed from churches in Zhejiang, the parallels have more to do with the unchecked and often arbitrary power of local officials than with restrictions on the religious freedom of China’s Christians.
Struck down, standing fast (June 11, 2016, World Magazine)
While the implications of the Wenzhou cross removals for the larger Chinese church remain to be seen, the events have revealed the resilience of the Wenzhou Christians and the power of international pressure to sway the country’s Communist leaders.
Society / Life
Beijing streetlife at night – in pictures (May 27, 2016, The Guardian)
From family boxing to food markets, Jens Schott Knudsen’s photographs of the Chinese capital after dark capture life in its streets and alleyways.
Video: Can you force people to care for the elderly? (May 30, 2016, BBC)
The Shanghai government thinks the tradition of caring for your elderly is fading in China. So it has introduced a punishment for the worst offenders: downgrading their credit scores. But China's one-child policy has created a unique set of circumstances.
Beijing’s Electric Bikes, the Wheels of E-Commerce, Face Traffic Backlash (May 30, 2016, The New York Times)
The growing number of private car drivers is at odds with the millions of residents who ride two- and three-wheeled electric cycles. The conflict has stirred emotions about inequality in urban China, pitting wealthier drivers against the blue-collar workers who need the electric bikes to make a living.
Chinese Detergent Maker’s Full Translated Apology for ‘Allegedly Racist’ Ad (May 30, 2016, China Real Time)
Qiaobi Laundry Gell Balls said in a statement released over the weekend it was sorry for the harm caused by the advertisement, which features a paint-spattered black man being transformed into a clean-cut Asian man by means of a washing machine. The company denied, however, that there was any racist intent behind the ad and cautioned viewers not to “read too much into it.”
Qiaobi’s “Horrible” and “Racist” Commercial Taken Down, Chinese Netizens Respond (May 31, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
The controversial Qiaobi laundry detergent commercial that shows a black man turning into a Chinese man after being ‘washed’ has been taken down by the company. The brand apologizes for the controversy, but many Chinese netizens are not satisfied.
In China, Homeowners Find Themselves in a Land of Doubt (May 31, 2016, The New York Times)
Like every other homeowner in China, Mr. Chen and his neighbor own their homes but not the land underneath them. All land in China is owned by the government, which parcels it out to developers and homeowners through 20- to 70-year leases.
The Village that AIDS Tore Apart (May 31, 2016, The Sixth Tone)
In the 1980s, illegal blood donation stations moved into rural areas of Henan province in central China and offered to pay for blood. These operations extracted plasma, then sold it on to institutional buyers. For the peasants in villages like Wenlou, this was a quick and easy way to make money. But these illegal stations were often run with a negligent approach to hygiene and sterilization. The result was an AIDS epidemic that tore through the community and still lives on today.
What made a Chinese teen stow away to Dubai? (June 1, 2016, BBC)
The story of a Chinese teenager who stowed away on a plane to Dubai, reportedly hoping to make money there as beggar, has sparked a conversation in China about misinformation.
5 Characteristics of a Uyghur Wedding (June 1, 2016, Far West China)
If you’ve ever attended a Uyghur wedding before, you’re already aware that it’s an extremely memorable experience. The food, the music, the dancing…all of it combines to create a culture event unrivaled in China’s Xinjiang region.
Video: 60 mln children grow up without parents in China (June 1, 2016, CCTV)
n China, more than 60 million children grow up in the countryside, while their parents live and work elsewhere, according to figures the All-China Women’s Federation.
Economics / Trade / Business
The Chinese factory mass producing Donald Trump masks – in pictures (May 27, 2016, The Guardian)
As Donald Trump clinches the Republican nomination, a Chinese factory is mass-producing masks in anticipation of Trump beating Hillary Clinton in the popularity stakes. The Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory is stockpiling the masks ahead of the election campaign and Halloween.
Along the new Silk Road, a city built on sand is a monument to China’s problems (May 29, 2016, The Washington Post)
Lanzhou New Area, in Gansu province, embodies China’s twin dreams of catapulting its poorer western regions into the economic mainstream through an orgy of infrastructure spending and cementing its place at the heart of Asia through a revival of the ancient Silk Road.
Will China’s ‘Taobao Villages’ Spur a Rural Revolution? (May 31, 2016, China File)
E-retail giants such as Alibaba and JD.com have transformed the way people consume in China. The country now has over 500 million online shoppers, making it the biggest e-commerce market in the world, both in terms of number of consumers and total spending—and the market is still expanding.
Xiaomi buys Microsoft smartphone patents (June 1, 2016, BBC)
Smartphone maker Xiaomi has bought the rights to hundreds of Microsoft's smartphone inventions. Experts say the patent deal paves the way for the Chinese firm to sell its handsets in Western markets.
An Overview of China’s Elderly Care Industry (June 1, 2016, China Briefing)
That said, China’s elderly care industry is still in its infancy and lacks the experience, expertise and infrastructure that exists in other more developed economies. Statistics show that an additional 3.4 million nursing homes will be needed in the next five years to keep pace with growing demand.
Education
Chinese children climb 800m cliff to get home from school – video (May 27, 2016, The Guardian)
Children as young as six from the small Atuler village in the Sichuan province of China have to scale a rock face using rickety ladders to get home from school. Images of their terrifying journey went viral this week on the Chinese internet.
Chinese city bans students from tearing up textbooks, state media says (May 30, 2016, BBC)
A Chinese city has banned high school students from tearing up textbooks or yelling in hallways to relieve exam pressure, state media said. The ban, issued by the Xiamen Education Bureau, comes 10 days before the National College Entrance Examination.
Chinese textbooks criticized for including Bible story (June 1, 2016, Global Times)
The co-compiler of a Chinese textbook used in Beijing secondary schools said Tuesday that a story from the Bible was included in the textbook to teach students about Western myths, after some outraged citizens claimed the book spreads Western values.
Health / Environment
China releases new action plan to tackle soil pollution (May 31, 2016, Reuters)
China aims to curb worsening soil pollution by 2020 and stabilize and improve soil quality by 2030, the cabinet said in an action plan published on Tuesday. The central government will set up a special fund to tackle soil pollution, as well as a separate fund to help upgrade technology and equipment in the heavy metal sector, the cabinet said in a statement on its website (www.gov.cn).
Science / Technology
Video: China's new deep sea submarine (May 18, 2016, BBC)
BBC science correspondent Rebecca Morelle looks inside a life-size model of a submarine which the Chinese hope will take humans to the very bottom of the ocean – the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific, at a depth of nearly 11,000m (36,000ft).
Video: China unveils 'straddling bus' design to beat traffic jams (May 26, 2016, The Guardian)
The “straddling bus”, which owes more to Blade Runner than China’s car-clogged highways, is supported by two legs that run along rails laid along the roadside.
History / Culture
Mao Badges — Red, Bright And Shiny (And Open To Every Form Of Capitalist Speculation) (May 25 2016, LA Review of Books)
The value of badges at these markets was never to my knowledge measured in money, but always in Xiao Maotou (literally: Little Mao Heads); a fairly plain larger badge might be worth 3 or 4, but at the top end some newly designed ones of good quality could easily go up to 20 or 30. The valuation fluctuated daily, so the shrewd dealer who could anticipate trends in the market could make quite a killing.
Yang Jiang Dies at 104; Revered Writer Witnessed China’s Cultural Revolution (May 26, 2016, The New York Times)
She and her husband, Qian Zhongshu, the author of the novel “Fortress Besieged,” were already acclaimed writers when Mao Zedong inaugurated the Cultural Revolution to root out ideological foes in 1966. At the time, Ms. Yang was working on a translation of “Don Quixote,” a formidable undertaking.
Free China’s Quemoy Island Repels Red Invasion Threat in 1958 (May 29, 2016, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)
A Shanghai family criticizes the father in 1952 (May 30, 2016, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)
How an ancient Chinese town survived the tumultuous Cultural Revolution (May 31, 2016, Christian Science Monitor)
In recent years, first-hand accounts have shed some light on this period in Pingyao, a town in Shanxi province that flourished as China’s banking center in the 1800s. The Cultural Revolution triggered a decade of factional warfare, and the story starts with Suo Fenqi, who in 1966 was an 18-year-old local leader of the Red Guards, the revolution’s shock troops.
Arts / Entertainment / Media
Qipa Talk: China’s Weirdest Debate (May 26, 2016, The World of Chinese)
This is the set of the most popular variety show in China—Qipa Talk (《奇葩说》). With 3.27 billion views on Weibo and 1 billion plays online, it’s hard to believe that this is actually a debating show. “Qipa” (奇葩 qípā) originally means “a beautiful and rare flower” in Chinese. In the internet age it has become a sarcastic term for people who behave in an unusual and nonsensical manner. Officially taking this name and proudly calling every debater a “qipa”, the talent show has revolutionized the meaning.
China Wanda City theme park opens in a battle with Disney (May 28, 2016, BBC)
China's richest man has opened a massive entertainment complex to compete with US giant Disney. "Wanda City", in south-eastern city Nanchang, features rides, shopping centres and an aquarium, and cost more than $3bn (just over £2bn). Its owner, Wang Jianlin, said he wanted to move away from western imports and to establish a global brand based on Chinese culture.
China's propaganda arms push soft power in Australian media deals (May 31, 2016, Sydney Morning Herald)
Fairfax Media, the publisher of this website, will run China Watch, an eight-page lift-out prepared by the Communist Party's official English-language China Daily, monthly in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Australian Financial Review.
Travel / Food
A Train Ride through 4 Provinces (May 27, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
The deep blue sky glimmers. Snow kisses the mountain heights. The passengers settle into their various compartments as the train promptly departs. For me, this departure signifies my sixth from the Tibetan capital aboard a train. For my wife Andi, this is her second trip. Our final destination is Chengdu; a forty-five hour journey, covering 2087 miles, awaits.
China Promoting Tourism for Disputed Paracel Islands (May 28, 2016, The New York Times)
Want a wedding on a remote island? Come to the Paracels, says Xiao Jie, who administers that group of islands. If you crave diving and windsurfing, he adds, we have just the spot for you.
On Offer in China: ‘Fried Swarm’ and Other Tasty Translations (May 30, 2016, The New York Times)
If Michelin gave stars for unintentionally brilliant dish names, an eatery in Pingyao, China, might well be the world’s top restaurant. It has a large sign outside showing some of its tastiest dishes, with English translations: “In Bowl,” “You Flour Silk,” “Beef Cat’s Ear” and a noodle dish in broth known as “Sauce on My Grandma.”
‘Unexplored’ China? Not for Long, the Way These Climbers Are Going (May 31, 2016, The New York Times)
Michael Dobie moved to Liming in September 2010 with two friends who discovered the Chinese village in a travel brochure. Crisscrossed by dirt roads, the rustic setting in the mountains of Yunnan province offered few amenities.
China’s Jetsetting ‘Rich Kids’ Crave Adventure Travel (June 1, 2016, Jing Daily)
With a focus on young luxury travelers from the “post-80s” generation and later, this year’s luxury travel survey by Hurun finds that China’s young rich travelers are more likely than ever to head off the beaten path in search of unique and adventurous travel experiences.
Language / Language Learning
Chinese Character Learning Strategies (June 1, 2016, Chinet)
Chinese characters are generally seen as the most difficult task in learning Chinese as a foreign language. This study focuses on learning strategies applied by beginning learners, namely memorization strategies and metacognitive strategies.
Books
China and the End of Reform — A Review of ‘China’s Future,’ a New Book By David Shambaugh (May 26, 2016, ChinaFile)
There are dark clouds on the horizon, and, though it is not too late for the Party to avoid a full-blown crisis, Shambaugh is not optimistic that the C.C.P. will take the reformist path. Instead, the Party and the country it rules likely face years of slow economic growth and political and social stagnation, an unenviable package of woes that economists call the middle-income trap.
Writing China: David Moser, ‘A Billion Voices’ (May 30, 2016, China Real Time)
In his new book, linguist David Moser charts China’s journey from hundreds of dialects – many mutually unintelligible – to the 1955 adoption of Mandarin as common national language, known in China as Putonghua. The book, “A Billion Voices,” is slated for U.S. publication in the fall.
Links for Researchers
What to Make of the Newly Established CyberSecurity Association of China (May 25, 2016, Center for International and Strategic Studies)
With all these changes, the creation of the CyberSecurity Association of China (CSAC; 中国网络空间安全协会 ) on March 25 has received far less attention. Yet the CSAC is important, not only as a prominent example of President Xi and his chief cybersecurity deputy Lu Wei’s quest to align government, industry, and academia around a shared set of cyber-governance objectives, but also as a force for shaping both the present and future of Chinese cybersecurity policy and the PRC’s engagement with international stakeholders on cyber issues.
Optimism and Interpretive Spaces: China's Foreign NGOs Management Law – A Response to Elisa Nesossi (June 1, 2016, Forgotten Archipelago)
The Foreign NGO Management Law has been the object of an heated, almost fiery, international debate, and understandably so.
Events
Exhibition of old photos of China in Hong Kong – 31/5-18/6/16 – Wattis Fine Art Gallery (May 30, 2016, China Rhyming)
A collection of fine prints, photographs, paintings and maps relating to the Pearl River and East Asia.
Image credit: by Matt Ming, via Flickr
Joann Pittman
Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs. Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University …View Full Bio