ZGBriefs | November 7, 2024

Featured Article

Meet Ms. Hu: She Built a Garden From Chongqing’s Discarded Past (October 30, 2024, Sixth Tone)
A dinosaur’s head peers out from a tangle of wildflowers. Half a horse stands watch beside saplings and scattered blossoms. These fragments are part of Ms. Hu’s hidden garden in Chongqing’s Shibati scenic area—once the heart of commerce in this megacity in southwestern China. This unlikely garden, crafted from scraps and relics collected from the city’s streets, seems worlds apart from the surrounding construction site, where trucks and cranes relentlessly reshape this 1,000-year-old neighborhood.

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Events

Sponsored Event—Free Fall Public Lecture
China Academic Consortium is hosting the next event in our joint lecture series. On Saturday, November 9, Dr. Lian Xi (David C. Steinmetz Distinguished Professor of World Christianity at Duke Univ.) will lecture on Lin Zhao and what her story reveals about Christianity in twentieth-century China. Click here to get more details and to register.

ERR China November Online Book Club
On November 13, 2024, ERRChina will host a book club discussion, facilitated by Joann Pittman, on her book The Bells Are Not Silent. Register and find more details about the online book club here.

Beijing Brief 2024 (November 18-22, 2024, Beijing Brief)
Beijing Brief, an annual gathering of Christian organizations, businesses and ministries focused on China will be meeting November 19–21 in the Dallas, Ft. Worth area. Last year, leaders from more than 80 organizations heard keynote talks and important updates from qualified experts, participated in networking opportunities and collaborative discussions on various issues such as leadership development, digital security and engagement, and the Chinese diaspora. Beijing Brief provides an incredible opportunity not only to receive and share up-to-date information, but to build connections and partnerships with others who share a focus on China-related work. For information on registration please contact mowens@visionsynergy.net directly.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

The Crimes and Punishments of China’s ‘Internet Auditor’ (October 31, 2024, China Media Project)
To cope with the sudden influx of “politically sensitive” information stemming from the Li Wenliang incident and the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Beijing-based internet companies began recruiting legions of auditors (审核员), tasked with monitoring user-generated content. The prospect of working for a prestigious “big factory” (大厂)—a special term used by Chinese media for large internet companies—enticed Chen Zheming. “At that time, I didn’t even know what an auditor did,” he says. “I only knew that I could snatch a position at a big factory and become the envy of others!”

The Art of War: PRC Weaponizes Culture to Galvanize the People (November 1, 2024, China Brief Archives – Jamestown Foundation)
Ever the materialists, the Party views culture as a tool, or perhaps even a weapon, that can be marshaled, directed, and deployed, both at home and overseas, to “realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation (实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦)” (Qiushi, October 15; International Department, October 28). For Xi Jinping and the CCP leadership, culture is oftentimes merely a byword for a unified patriotism (or Party-otism), which can be used to buttress stability at home or burnish the regime’s idealized narrative of prosperity and harmony abroad.

China Warns Young Soldiers Against Online Dating, Gambling (November 4, 2024, Reuters)
In an unusual warning, China’s navy told young officers and personnel that they could get ensnared by online dating scams and virtual gambling if they let down their guard, exposing themselves to security risks and undermining the military.

Religion

When Chinese and Korean Churches Join Forces (November 4, 2024, ChinaSource)
On July 9, 2024, approximately 80 Chinese and Korean pastors, ministry leaders, and researchers met in Gaithersburg, MD, to hear about, reflect on, and find applications for the first comprehensive baseline study involving Chinese and Korean churches in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and northern Virginia (DMV) region. The operative research question articulated by Dao Feng He, president of the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation which sponsored this research grant, was to “find out why Korean Americans have a much higher proportion of Christian faith than Chinese Americans and why the generational transition of pastors in Korean American churches seems better than in Chinese churches.”

Choosing the Chinese Bible Translation (November 1, 2024, ChinaSource)
Some may assume that Chinese Bible translation resources are limited, but that’s not entirely accurate. The United Bible Societies have been carrying out an extensive Bible digitization project, preserving texts and creating digital archives in many languages. This project revealed that while English has the highest number of translations, Chinese ranks third after Spanish, with over 80 complete or partial translations.

Reformation and Gospel (With Chinese Characteristics) (October 31, 2024, China Partnership)
Over the past 30 years, we have witnessed with awe and wonder the steady and continuous growth of the gospel of Christ—the leaven of God’s kingdom—in the flour of the earth’s largest population. At the same time, the Chinese church is also catching up on lessons it missed during half a century of isolation from the global church.

A Peaceful World: The Story of An Ning, Part 1 (November 4, 2024, China Partnership)
As a child, An Ning heard hymns, and saw his Miao slaves worshipping the Lord. But even as a child, he was already the “young master.” His presence often made the Miao believers uneasy. So while he knew about the Lord, he didn’t come to truly know him through these encounters. That happened later, when he was studying at Peking University.

Xi Jinping’s Zongjiao Zhongguohua (Chinazation of Religion) and the Christian Idea of Inculturation (October, 2024, China Zentrum)
In this article, the author endeavours to compare Xi Jinping’s religious policy of zongjiao Zhongguohua (Chinazation of religion) with the Christian idea of inculturation. For this goal, he first provides some terminological explanations and then shows the core statements of Xi Jinping concerning his religious policy. Afterwards, he points to a possible origin of Chinazation of religions in the present-day atheist Communist China. Subsequently, he explains a Christian idea of inculturation. Finally, he compares Xi Jinping’s religious policy of zongjiao Zhongguohua with the Christian idea of inculturation in three points: the difference in the source of authority; the difference in the way of implementation of the Christian idea of inculturation and Xi Jinping’s policy of Chinazation; and finally in their ultimate objectives.

Society / Life

Lost and Found: Seeking Solace in Street View Snapshots (October 30, 2024, Sixth Tone)
In recent times, the street-level images offered up by various navigation apps have become accidental time capsules, preserving touching memories of lost loved ones, demolished homes, and forgotten childhoods.

Marriage Registrations Fall and Women Shun Motherhood (November 4, 2024, China Digital Times)
China’s State Council unveiled new policies last week intended to promote parenthood and foster a more “reproduction-friendly society,” which were met with muted skepticism. Along with other media pieces on the subject, subsequent news underlined just how far away Chinese citizens are from supporting the government’s goal.

Opinion: Don’t Get ‘River-Crabbed!’ How China is Cracking Down on Punny Dissent (November 2, 2024, 2024, NPR News)
An online blogger in China recently asked: how do you clean a flask? But the Mandarin word for flask is xi-jing-ping, which sounds like the name of China’s leader, Xi Jin Ping. Government censors suspected the writer was really asking, “How do you get rid of the president of China?” They took down the query.

Science / Technology

China Declares Success as Its Youngest Astronauts Reach Space (October 31, 2024, BBC News)
A Chinese spacecraft with a three person crew, including the first female space engineer, has docked after a journey of more than six hours. The crew will use the homegrown space station as a base for six months to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks as Beijing gathers experience and intelligence for its eventual mission to put someone on the moon by 2030.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Video—Bringing Back Baile (November 2, 2024, Sixth Tone)
Nearly 50 years ago, Shen Jian got a job making Baile-brand accordions at the Shanghai Accordion Factory. The factory is long gone—closed during a round of state-owned enterprise consolidation in the early 2000s—and demand for accordions has shrunk, but Shen remains, running a factory on the outskirts of Shanghai. By his own admission, his decision has cost him everything: the factory has struggled to earn money, and the stress of running it broke up his marriage. But against all odds, Shen has kept his factory open.

I Wanted Those 828 Men Not to Be Forgotten’: The Chinese Documentary Raising Wartime Ghosts (November 1, 2024, The Guardian)
The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru tells the story of a Japanese ship that was used to transport 1,816 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong to Japan during the second world war. In October 1942, as the unmarked vessel was sailing through the East China Sea, it was torpedoed by the US navy. Hundreds of prisoners drowned or were shot by Japanese troops as they tried to escape. But more than 300 were rescued by Chinese fishers who spotted the smoke and debris from an archipelago on China’s east coast (most were later recaptured by the Japanese).

Education

Was China’s Teen Math Star Set Up to Succeed? (November 4, 2024, Sixth Tone)
In June, a 17-year-old fashion design student from a tiny Chinese village became a national sensation by beating thousands of elite graduates to reach the final of a prestigious global math contest. Jiang Ping was hailed as a “genius,” but many suspected the story was too good to be true.

History / Culture

Out of Eden Walk—China (National Geographic)
When you set out to trek across the world, one of the very first things you learn about such a global walk of a lifetime is that it contains many other, if shorter, walks of a lifetime. It’s like an unfolding a map that you can zoom into—and zoom into, and zoom into—infinitely. Or perhaps it’s a bit like roaming a library where every single book you open proves a treasure that could occupy years of attention. The past two years and four months of walking across China has been that way.

Economics / Trade / Business

China Tightens Grip on Critical Minerals (October 31, 2024, China Digital Times)
China has extended its dominance at home and abroad over critical minerals that are essential to future high-tech and renewable-energy industries. Amid intensifying geopolitical competition, Western countries are increasing their efforts to claw back market share while countries in the Global South, where many of these minerals are mined, are attempting to capitalize on growing global demand.

How Many Foreigners Work In the Chinese Capital? Fewer and Fewer (November 3, 2024, South China Morning Post)
With just a year to go until Beijing’s self-imposed deadline to become an international hub of innovation, just 22,000 foreigners are living and working long term in the Chinese capital.The estimate, from a report compiled by the Beijing International Talent Exchange Association and released at a forum late last month, is well down on the 37,000 foreigners reportedly working in the city a decade ago.

EU Launches Action Against Shopping Website Temu Over Illegal Products (October 31, 2024, The Guardian)
The EU has launched formal proceedings against the Chinese shopping website Temu amid concerns it is failing to halt the sale of illegal products online.

A formal investigation was opened on Thursday with the European Commission citing concerns over the platform, which is a cut-price rival to Amazon.

Why China Needs to Fill Its Empty Homes (October 31, 2024, The Economist)
If not another flat was built and sales continued at their current pace, it would take eight years to sell all the homes lying dormant around Luoyang, a city of 7m in central China. The region is a hot spot for the country’s property crisis, where years of overbuilding have turned entire districts into housing graveyards. Sprawling wastelands of concrete and glass scar the city.

Living Cross-Culturally

WeChat Pay Now Available on Taobao (October 30, 2024, The Beijinger Blog)
If you are an avid user of Taobao then we’ve got great news for you! You are now able to pay on Taobao using WeChat Pay and it couldn’t be easier to do.

Travel / Food

How to Enter Mainland China Visa-Free: A Traveller’s Guide (November 4, 2024, South China Morning Post)
China announced on Friday it would let citizens of nine more countries – including nearby South Korea – enter its mainland without a visa, another expansion of a scheme to bring in more foreign tourists and bolster the economy.

Pray for China

November 1 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
On Nov. 1, 1887, missionary and philanthropist William Borden (博德恩) was born into a wealthy family in the U.S. Borden earned degrees from Yale and Princeton Theological Seminary before joining the China Inland Mission. At that time, there was little work being done among China’s Muslims, and under the influence of Samuel Zwemmer, Borden felt God’s call to make that his life work. He moved to Cairo and was studying Arabic, when he contracted meningitis and died there in 1913 at age 25. His will left $800,000 to the CIM and other Christian charities. Borden Memorial Hospital was opened in Lanzhou in 1918 by the China Inland Mission, and a leprosarium followed in 1926. Borden’s epitaph described him as: “A man in Christ…Fervent in spirit serving the Lord, Rejoicing in hope, Patient in tribulation, Instant in prayer…” In recent years, Chinese Christian doctors from eastern China have taken short-term trips to the Lanzhou area to serve poor Muslim families. Pray for these doctors to likewise walk with Christ as they provide itinerant medical care in Gansu.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12