ZGBriefs | January 27, 2022

Featured Article

Migrant Worker’s Contact Tracing Story Touches Chinese Netizens (January 24, 2022, Radii China)
The work history of a migrant worker searching for his missing son in Beijing has gone viral on Chinese social media.

Special Section: Winter Olympics

China’s Games: How Xi Jinping Is Staging the Olympics on His Terms (January 24, 2022, The New York Times) (subscription required)
From Beijing’s unexpected bid through the coronavirus pandemic, China has managed to fulfill its promises and cow its critics.

Winter Olympics 2022: China eases Covid testing rules amid rise in cases (January 25, 2022, BBC)
Organisers of the Beijing Winter Olympics have eased a Covid-19 testing requirement for participants, amid a growing number of cases in the capital. The new change makes it easier for participants arriving at the Games to be considered virus-free. Of more than 3,000 Olympic arrivals, 106 have tested positive for the virus since 4 January. 

The significance of Beijing hosting both the Summer and Winter Olympics (January 26, 2022, NPR)
Next week, Beijing will become the first city to host both Summer and Winter Olympics. To China, it’s a big deal — even if a handful of countries are protesting China’s human rights record.

China’s Olympics COVID measures test residents’ patience (January 26, 2022, AP)
A third round of mass testing that started Wednesday for the 2 million residents of Fengtai district drew complaints online and from residents bundled up against the wind to wait in line outdoors. The skies were sunny, but the daytime high hovered around the freezing point.

Beijing seals up its Winter Olympics ‘bubble’ amid growing calls for boycott (January 26, 2022, Radio Free Asia)
Thousands of Olympics staff, volunteers, cleaners, cooks and bus drivers have been confined to a bubble since Jan. 25, with no contact allowed with the outside world, to be joined by an estimated 3,000 athletes and incoming journalists due to arrive ahead of the Feb. 4-20 event.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

China sends 39 warplanes toward Taiwan, largest in new year (January 24, 2022, ABC News)
China flew 39 warplanes toward Taiwan in its largest such sortie of the new year, amid tensions over the self-ruled island’s future and as the U.S. pushes to assert its presence in the region. The Chinese formation Sunday night included 24 J-16 fighter jets and 10 J-10 jets, among other support and electronic warfare aircraft, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.

U.S. weighs letting diplomats leave China over tough COVID rules (January 26, 2022, Reuters)
The U.S. State Department is considering whether to authorize departures for American diplomats and their families in China who wish to leave due to the U.S. government’s inability to prevent Chinese authorities from subjecting them to intrusive pandemic control measures, sources told Reuters.

US Navy wants to get crashed stealth fighter back — before China can (January 26, 2022, CNN)
The United States Navy is trying to retrieve its most advanced fighter jet from the depths of the South China Sea, an extremely complex operation that analysts say will be closely monitored by Beijing. The F-35C, a single-engine stealth fighter and the newest jet in the US Navy fleet, crash-landed on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during routine operations on Monday, the Navy said.

Religion

Video: “Look Up and See the Vastness of the World”: Learning from the Chinese House Church (January 19, 2022, Covenant College, via YouTube)

My Life in Christ (January 24, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
My aunt, my father’s younger sister, was the first Christian in my family. When she learned of my confusion, she told me to follow Jesus Christ to gain eternal life. When I heard the word “eternal,” it grasped my heart. Although I didn’t understand what that word meant exactly, it sounded to me like something valuable, something that was worth getting.

Chinese Christian group anxiously awaits asylum decision on South Korean island (January 25, 2022, Radio Free Asia)
Dozens of Christians on South Korea’s Jeju Island are facing forcible repatriation to China after their asylum applications were rejected by multiple courts. The 60 members of the Shenzhen Mayflower Church fled to Jeju in 2019, braving language barriers and lack of access to medical care in a bid to ensure their children didn’t have to undergo the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s “patriotic education” and anti-religious propaganda in school.

Churches in China Prepare for the New Year (January 25, 2022, Chinese Church Voices)
The first day of the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is next week. Churches in China have been busy preparing for the holiday. The two articles below from China Christian Daily tell of three churches that prepared and distributed free New Year couplets to bless their congregations and proclaim God’s love.

Society / Life

In Rural Sichuan, Poverty and Profit Are Just a Click Apart (January 22, 2022, Sixth Tone)
To eke out a living, many put poverty on display in short videos or livestreams. But this clashes with the government’s narrative.

‘Stop nagging!’: Why China’s young adults are resisting marriage and babies (January 24, 2022, The Guardian)
“Young Chinese’s attitude towards marriage poses a big threat to Beijing’s effort to alter the looming demographic crisis,” said Dr Ye Liu, a senior lecturer at King’s College London’s Lau China Institute. “Coupled with a higher level of education and economic betterment, this will become a bigger headache in the years to come.”

They Were Reporters in Hong Kong. Now They Drive Cabs and Sell Fried Chicken. (January 25, 2022, Vice)
Front-line journalists who used to shout thorny questions at government officials fell silent. Some left the profession altogether, taking with them decades of experience and, in Lai’s case, stories that are now told in the confines of a cab instead of on the pages of a newspaper.

China Wants a ‘Clean Cyberspace’ During Spring Festival Holidays (January 26, 2022, Sixth Tone)
The Cyberspace Administration of China announced a month-long campaign Tuesday, aiming to wipe online content deemed unfit for a “healthy, festive, and peaceful” Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 1 this year. The “clean cyberspace” campaign will target social media content that includes instances of doxxing, personal attacks, or deemed to be disrupting celebrity fan groups.

Economics / Trade / Business

No respite for China’s stressed out supply chains as Covid-zero and new year holidays take a toll (January 26, 2022, CNBC)
Covid lockdowns, quarantines and restrictions are causing a backlog in some of China’s major ports, resulting in “chaos” and pushing up air freights by as much as 50% in some cases, analysts tell CNBC.

Education

For China’s Half-Million Foreign Students, a Painful Wait Extends Into Third Year (January 24, 2022, The Wall Street Journal) (subscription required)
The pandemic has scrambled life for students everywhere. The challenges have been uniquely complex for hundreds of thousands of international students enrolled at Chinese universities but locked out of the country for two years.

History / Culture

Video: Who—or What—Were the First Blacks of China? (December 18, 2022, CEAS Chicago, via YouTube)

Video: (Ancient) Chinese Leadership Coaching (January 20, 2022, CantoSense)
Is coaching in the leadership context really as western as it’s often presented to be? This episode, we are joined by Wan Chung Lai, a professional workplace coach, to discuss how coaching has historically been a part of Chinese leadership. 

Travel / Food

The Sacred White Mountain on the China-DPRK Border (January 22, 2022, The World of Chinese)
Straddled between China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea), Mount Changbai is the tallest peak both in Northeast China and on the Korean Peninsula. Beneath the peaceful scenery is a powerful volcano lying dormant.

US suspends 44 China-bound flights from Chinese airlines (January 24, 2022, CNN)
The order — which applies to flights operated by Air China (AIRYY), China Eastern Airlines (CEA), China Southern Airlines (ZNH) and Xiamen Airlines — was issued “in response” to measures by Chinese aviation authorities that forced US carriers to cancel the same number of flights, according to the US Transportation Department.

China Begins a Tense Spring Festival Travel Rush (January 26, 2022, Sixth Tone)
China’s Lunar New Year holiday is approaching. But once again, the threat of the coronavirus is disrupting the festivities.

Language / Language Learning

Naxi writing (January 24, 2022, Language Log)
The Naxi, a national minority indigenous to China’s extreme southwest, have what looks for all the world like pictographic writing as its literary tradition. 

Living Cross-culturally

Historical Context Matters (January 26, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Over the following years, I found many aspects of the American culture and mindset I initially just did not understand. My first reaction was often one of confusion. Why did they think that way? Why do they do that? How does this make sense?

Books

The Translation of the Bible into Chinese: A Book Review (January 21, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Over the last two decades I have encountered a fairly steady stream of people who are dissatisfied with the CUV translation. Most vocal are expatriate China workers—typically with limited Chinese language skills—who insist that the CUV translation is inaccurate and the language outdated. They are usually accompanied by younger or at least newer Chinese believers and inquirers who complain that the Bible is too hard to understand. Expatriates tend to view this as related to the same outdated language problem—and most Chinese are quick to admit that the CUV does not read like a modern Chinese novel. And yet the Chinese church around the globe is full of old and young, educated and unschooled, women and men who all find the CUV to be a tremendous source of blessing.

The death of woman Wang and the life of Jonathan Spence (January 26, 2022, Sup China)
Jonathan Spence let woman Wang’s life tell the world much about Chinese history and society. Professor Spence passed away a month ago, on Christmas Day, and so I would like to use woman Wang’s story again, this time to tell something about Jonathan Spence.

Links for Researchers

The China Historical Christian Database (Boston University)
The China Historical Christian Database (CHCD) is a powerful new tool for the study of Christianity in China. Through the creation of a cutting-edge geographic and relational database, an innovative online platform, and strategic international partnerships, the CHCD offers a new approach to resolving some of the classic problems of historical research on Christianity in China: the linguistic plurality and geographic spread of sources. 

Translation: 14th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization – Dec. 2021 (January 24, 2022, Stanford University Digichina)

Annual report on overseas NGOs in China released (January 26, 2022, China Development Brief)
The annual report on overseas NGOs in China, released by the Administration Office of Overseas NGOs of the Ministry of Public Security (AONGOMPS), revealed that by Dec 31 last year, 631 representative offices of overseas NGOs had registered in accordance with the law, and 4,018 temporary activities had been recorded. Of the 631 registered representative offices, the majority were by organizations based in the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, accounting for 62.44 percent of the total.

Pray for China

January 28 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
On Jan. 28, 1828, George Evans Moule (慕稼谷) was born in England. He arrived in Ningbo in 1858 and served in China with the Anglican Church Missionary Society for 53 years until he retired to England in 1911. Pray for Chinese pastors to follow Bishop Moule in fighting the good fight, keeping the faith, and finishing life’s race well. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7