Less than a decade ago, the relations between China and the US dominated globally, not only for the economy but also for human rights. When the flight of Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo, to Berlin last week, shows one thing, it is that Germany is taking over that role, says Pulitzer price winner Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, who gave a eulogy on Liu Xiaobo in Berlin, last Friday, at DW.Read More →

Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, interviewed the sociologist Guo Yuhua, a known critic of the government. One jewel in the interview on how she was able to open an account on WeChat, despite the governmental censorship, for the NY Review of Books.Read More →

Journalist Ian Johnson gained most recently celebrity by his latest book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. Last week we got a peek into his research activities showing what immerging into a subject mean for a dedicated journalist like Ian.Read More →

The devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake is still sending tremors into China’s society, writes journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, in the NY Review of Books.”China’s supreme rulers today also have a strong hold over their citizens, but their edifice might not be immune from seismic change in society.”Read More →

China’s economy went uphill dramatically over the past decades, but women profited less than men, writes author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel, on prostitution in China. It is time the government starts to enforce its own laws and regulations on gender discrimination, she tells in the South China Morning Post. Read More →

Author and journalist Zhang Lijia, who recently published Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, will move to London from Beijing early May. Currently, she is finishing her upcoming book about left-behind children from migrant workers in China.Read More →

Very slowly the dreadful verdict of China’s approximately 30 million left-behind children on the country-side is slowly getting more coverage. Journalist Zhang Lijia, preparing a book on the issue, summarizes the problems for the New York Times. Why have they been forgotten?Read More →

Much of China and many Chinese have become wealthy. But just a few decades ago, remembers author Zhang Lijia of “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China Spring Festival was the only moment in the year where food was abundant. At her website, she looks with a nostalgic view at those poorer times.Read More →

While most of the media stress government control on journalists and authors, Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, sees huge advantages too, she tells the blog Women and Gender in China (WAGIC). “Internationally Chinese women writers are almost invisible. This is another reason that I want to keep writing.”Read More →

Fake news has become rightfully a problem for journalists, but the relation between journalism and fiction is a bit more complicated. Beijing-based journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel covered some of the common ground at the literary festival at Ubud, Indonesia, she writes on her weblog.Read More →

Journalist Zhang Lijia’s book Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China hides nice jewels in different corners. Sex workers often held very strong religious believes, she tells Karen Ma in AsianCha.”I believe it is their way of cleansing themselves, but also because they feel the deities won’t judge them.”Read More →