ZGBriefs | January 20, 2022

Featured Article

China’s Foreign Firms Are Running Out of a Key Resource: Foreigners (January 19, 2022, Sixth Tone)
The strict policies have left large numbers of expats effectively stranded outside China. As many as 100,000 foreigners may be waiting for permission to return to Shanghai alone, local media outlet SmartShanghai estimates. It’s unclear exactly how many foreigners remain in China. 

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Short Videos to Tell the China Story (January 18, 2022, China Media Project)
Welcome to China’s first annual Short Video Online Influencer Night, where the videos, all up for top prizes, sing the CCP’s “main melody” (主旋律), telling stories about hardworking civil servants, the prosperous lives of ethnic Tibetans, and the personal miracles made by the country’s vibrant economy.

Religion

Raising the Walls of the Sandbox (January 14, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
I was reminded of all this two weeks ago when China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) released a document titled “Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services.” These measures are to go into effect on March 1. If strictly enforced as written, activities such as religious training, publishing sermons, linking religious content, and broadcasting live or recorded religious events will only be allowed on government -approved religious sites. In other words, the sandbox walls are likely to get higher.

A Reader Responds to the 2021 Winter CSQ (January 17, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Over the course of these years a question I posed to pastors during times of casual conversation had to do with how they would characterize China’s house church using human developmental stages. Almost without exception they all told me that China’s house church is an “adolescent”, meaning it has matured beyond the years of infancy and early childhood but is still very much working its way toward fuller maturity.

Responding as a Christian to Beggars (January 18, 2022, Chinese Church Voices)
How should Christians respond to those who play loud hymns and beg in front of the church on Sunday? What should the believer’s attitude be towards them? Can a Christian refuse to give money? What does the Bible say? 

Society / Life

Video: Examining the human toll of China’s stringent COVID policy (January 11, 2022, PBS)
Chinese authorities locked down after discovering two cases of omicron in Anyang, a city of 5.5 million people about 300 miles outside Beijing. It’s the third Chinese city now in lockdown and comes less than a month before the Beijing Olympics. These lockdowns are tests of China’s zero-COVID policy, which authorities have called a success. But critics ask: at what cost? Nick Schifrin reports.

Infographic: China Faces a Shocking Drop in Population Growth (January 17, 2022, Sixth Tone)
China’s birth rate was the lowest since the founding of the country in 2021, while its net population growth was the lowest in nearly 60 years, according to figures published Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics. At the end of 2021, China’s population was 1.42 billion, an increase of 480,000 over 2020. Annual births were 10.6 million, with a birth rate of 0.75%; 10.1 million people died, with a death rate of 0.72%; and the natural population growth rate was 0.03%.

China curbs nationwide travel surge ahead of Winter Olympics, Lunar New Year (January 18, 2022, Radio Free Asia)
Authorities in Beijing are imposing curbs on schools and restricting people’s travel through mass persuasion, mandatory testing and financial incentives in a bid to contain an outbreak of COVID-19 cases ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

17 Hours of Covid Lockdown in a Shanghai Shopping Mall (January 19, 2022, Radii China)
We had the opportunity to speak with Ethan, a Shanghai resident who was inside for the ordeal, to hear a firsthand account of China’s zero-Covid campaign in action — when the threat of transmission hits a contained environment. Ethan, who asked to be identified only by his first name, was in the mall that day for a business meeting. When he tried to leave around 7:30 PM, he noticed a large crowd gathered by the exit. 

Economics / Trade / Business

China’s zero-Covid policy could deal another blow to global supply chains, Moody’s says (January 16, 2022, CNBC)
Restrictions aimed at containing Covid-19 have impacted manufacturing and shipping operations globally, exacerbating the supply chain crisis. There have been renewed concerns that the highly infections omicron variant could also deal another blow to the shipping industry.

Colombo Port City: A new Dubai or a Chinese enclave? (January 17, 2022, BBC)
But Hambantota port is no longer in Sri Lanka’s hand. Under the last government in 2017, Sri Lanka handed it over to Chinese control after struggling to pay off the debt to Chinese firms, with some of the money earned reportedly being used to pay off other debts. So perhaps it is not surprising that not everyone in Sri Lanka shares the enthusiasm Port City officials have for the project.

Education

What Life Is Like for One of China’s Stranded International Students (January 17, 2022, Sixth Tone)
The author, an international student from Malaysia, reflects on spending her first three semesters of university thousands of kilometers from campus.

History / Culture

Photo: Aerial view of Shanghai – taken on September 19th 1945. (January 10, 2022, Jonathan Chatwin, via Twitter)

The last voyage of famed Chinese admiral Zheng He (January 19, 2022, Sup China)
At its height, the Ming dynasty had more than a thousand ocean-going vessels, including large “treasure ships” equipped with luxury cabins and weaponry. At the helm was Zheng He, an admiral who has fascinated historians in recent decades.

What Do Tigers Symbolize in China? (January 19, 2022, The World of Chinese)
Tigers have represented bravery, strength, and authority for centuries in Chinese culture.

Travel / Food

As the Olympics approach, flights to China and Hong Kong are reduced due to COVID-19 and politics(January 17, 2022, The Points Guy)
On Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, China said it was ending ticket sales even for locals (foreigners had already been banned). A recent report of a case of the omicron variant in Beijing apparently the cause. There is also a ban on internal travel to the city. In the U.S.-Shanghai market, China has ordered more than two dozen flight cancellations after an unspecified number of passengers tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in China.

Din Tai Fung: A tale of a Chinese restaurant’s success against all odds? (January 19, 2022, Dao Insights)
Everyone knows there’s only one place to get decent Xiaolongbao, a Chinese delicacy globally. The red logo with white writing, excellent service, the neatly folded bites of soup-filled heaven, and the open kitchen that runs on a balance of philosophy, art, and maths. Hailed by some as the world’s greatest dumplings, Din Tai Fung is the place to be for your share of Shanghainese cuisine.

Special Section: Olympics

Winter Olympics tickets will not be sold as China seeks to contain Covid (January 17, 2022, The Guardian)
Tickets to the Beijing Winter Olympics will not be sold to the general public, but distributed to “targeted” groups, organisers have announced, in China’s latest attempt to control the spread of the highly-infectious Omicron Covid variant.

Alibaba transforms the Beijing Winter Olympics for the digital era (January 17, 2022, Dao Insights)
It will be the first high-tech green Olympic Games in the history of the games. From event broadcasting and scores releasing, to athletes’ accommodation, transportation, and healthcare, all the logistics and information will be processed with cloud computing technology on Ali Cloud (a sector of Alibaba).

Winter Olympics: Athletes advised to use burner phones in Beijing (January 18, 2022, BBC)
The Beijing Winter Olympics app that all Games attendees must use contains security weaknesses that leave users exposed to data breaches, analysts say. The My2022 app will be used by athletes, audience members and media for daily Covid monitoring. The app will also offer voice chats, file transfers and Olympic news. But cybersecurity group Citizen Lab says the app fails to provide encryption on many of its files. China has dismissed the concerns.

Winter Olympics: Athletes warned over speaking out on human rights issues (January 19, 2022, BBC)
“Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I’m sure will be protected and anything and any behaviour or speeches that are against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment,” said Yang Shu, deputy director general of Beijing 2022’s International Relations Department. Yang suggested that a possible punishment could be the cancellation of athletes’ accreditation.

What it’s like to be a 2022 Olympics ski patroller: quarantines, king-size beds, and 80 mph skiing (January 19, 2022, Matador Network)
Being one of the world’s best ski patrollers isn’t a common job, especially as there’s no clear training path to the top like an athlete may follow. So we caught up over email with Bruce Welton, 37, a ski patroller at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, to find out what it’s like behind the scenes (and on the slopes) preparing for the upcoming Olympic ski events. 

Language / Language Learning

Fangyan Friday: The Northern Influence on Hangzhou’s Dialect (January 14, 2022, The World of Chinese)
The Hangzhou dialect, or Hangzhouhua (杭州话), is part of the Wu variety of Chinese, spoken in the region known as Jiangnan or south of the Yangtze River which includes Shanghai and a large part of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

Chinese dialects in decline as government enforces Mandarin (January 16, 2022, The Guardian)
The decline in local dialects among the younger generation has become more apparent in recent years as China’s president, Xi Jinping, has sought to strengthen a uniform Chinese identity. Mandarin is now being spoken by more than 80% of China’s population, up from 70% a decade ago. Last month, China’s state council vowed to increase the figure to 85% within the next four years.

A guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls: Learning Mandarin pronunciation (January 17, 2022, Hacking Chinese)
The currently dominating romanisation system (a system used to convert written text to our alphabet from another script) is called Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音), or just Pinyin for short. There are other systems in use as well, but in this article, I want to focus on Pinyin, as that is what a vast majority of students learn first. My goal is to help you achieve the second goal described above by highlighting and explaining some of the traps and pitfalls that await students learning Pinyin.

Living Cross-culturally

‘Returning to China Is Like Buying a Lottery Ticket’ (January 17, 2022, Sixth Tone)
Dozens of international flights have been canceled as the country reports a surge in COVID-19 infections among inbound passengers.

Books

Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners (Hackett Publishing Company)
In just thirteen brief, accessible chapters, this engaging little book takes “absolute beginners” from the most basic questions about the language (e.g., what does a classical Chinese character look like?) to reading and understanding selections from classical Chinese philosophical texts and Tang dynasty poetry.

Links for Researchers

Generational Legacies: The Family in Chinese Christianity (December, 2021, Review of Religion in Chinese Society)
Since the late Ming Dynasty, issues related to family have been a challenge for missionaries and Chinese Christians alike. One of the first obstacles that many Chinese Christian converts were confronted with centered on ancestor “worship” and whether Christianity allowed rituals associated with this. 

Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 31, Issue 133 (2022) (Taylor and Francis Online)

Events

Mental Health and Asian Americans: Contexts and Strategies for Faith Leaders (Princeton Theological Seminary Center for Asian American Christianity)
On January 24, 2022, the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary will host an online conference titled “Mental Health and Asian Americans: Context and Strategies for Faith Leaders.” The morning plenary sessions will feature presentations by leading mental health expert, Dr. Josephine Kim, and the co-founder of StopAAPIHate, Dr. Russell Jeung. Dr. Kim will address the historical, social, and racial factors that help make Asian Americans vulnerable to mental health issues. Dr. Jeung will address the immediate context of the COVID pandemic and the racial trauma experienced by many Asian Americans. Registration is free. 

Pray for China

January 22 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court (7-2) legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade, handing population control advocates a victory and foreshadowing China’s One-Child Policy. Chengdu Pastor Wang Yi (王怡牧师) was one of the most outspoken opponents of that policy. He pastored the Early Rain Covenant Church, which was notable for passing out pro-life literature at abortion facilities and for establishing a ministry for pregnant women until the church was closed in Dec. 2018 and Pastor Wang received a 9-year prison sentence a year later. Pray for Chinese Christians to manifest God’s love and truth in protecting the sanctity of life. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16