Jon Kuert

After his first trip to China in 2001, Jon Kuert served as the director of AFC Global for seven years and was responsible for sending teams of students and volunteers to China and other parts of Asia. After that, he and his wife Elissa moved to Yunnan province where they lived for seven years. While in China, Jon taught English and led language and leadership hikes with university students. Together, he and Elissa also established a small business initiative to help rural Chinese women in difficult life situations. Currently, Jon lives in Minnesota and is the founder and director of Nihao MN, an international student organization dedicated to enriching the Chinese student experience through outdoor adventure and meals around the table.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | February 13, 2025

Kunming: The Spring City’s Long Gospel History (February 6, 2025, China Partnership) When the gospel comes to this city, the gospel is also lukewarm.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | February 6, 2025

Spring Festival 2.0: How Gen-Z Is Changing China’s Biggest Holiday (January 31, 2025, Sixth Tone) For China’s Gen-Z, the Spring Festival is still the biggest holiday of the year, but the way they celebrate is evolving — more online, more personalized, shaped by social media and a growing appetite for niche traditions.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | January 30, 2025

The Growth of Christianity in China May Have Come to an End (January 10, 2025, Sage Journals) In 19 nationally representative surveys conducted since the early 2000s, the authors find no clear evidence that Christianity continues to grow as a share of China’s population.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | January 23, 2025

Slithering Through Time: The Evolution of the Snake in Chinese Culture (January 21, 2024, The World of Chinese) Among the 12 zodiac animals, the snake stands out for its particularly complex and contradictory symbolism.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | January 16, 2025

The Lunar New Year travel rush, known as Chunyun in Chinese, is often seen as a barometer for China's economic health and a pressure test for its vast transportation system.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | January 9, 2025

Why do so many Chinese people choose such curious English names? You might think this is a bit of a trivial question, but I think these names reveal something about the China that gave rise to them.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | January 2, 2024

One of Carter’s most enduring foreign policy legacies was his decision to establish formal diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China at the start of 1979.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | December 26, 2024

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!

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | December 19, 2024

China Extends Visa-Free Transit Stays to 10 Days (December 16, 2024, Reuters) People from 54 countries including Russia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, "who transit from China to a third country (region), can enter China without a visa from any of the 60 open ports in 24 provinces and stay in the specified area for no more than 240 hours," it said.

ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | December 12, 2024

Video – Christian Architecture in Contemporary China: Orthodox Form and Metabollic Practice (December 4, 2024, Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics)With the founding of the People’s Republic, the construction of churches by missionaries came to a halt. Existing churches were expropriated, and it was not until 1979, with the readmission of religious […]