ZGBriefs | September 14, 2017
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How I Help Students Cheat Their Way to Academic Success (September 12, 2017, Sixth Tone)
I knew what I was doing was unethical, but I also knew I didn’t have enough cash to get through the month.
ZGBriefs
A weekly roundup of news and analysis to help you follow key developments in China and the Chinese church.
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ZGBriefs | September 7, 2017
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Homeschooling Still Illegal, Warns Chinese Government (September 6, 2017, Sixth Tone)
In an effort to reduce dropout rates, the Chinese government has clarified that homeschooling, as well as so-called sishu schools that focus on teaching classic Chinese culture, are illegal.
ZGBriefs | August 31, 2017
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My Private Space (August 25, 2017, From the West Courtyard)
After a night of baking, students were packing up their cookies to take home to the dorms. For several it was their first experience with an oven, measuring cups, and following a recipe. Vanilla had spilled, fingers had been burned, and the recipe had been seen as a good suggestion. They tasted their creations and rated their success. The general consensus? “Can we do it again?” Of course.
ZGBriefs | August 24, 2017
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Should Publications Compromise to Remain in China? - A ChinaFile Conversation (August 21, 2017, China File)
Freedom of expression may have won this battle against state censorship, but if state interference continues what compromises is it permissable for academic institutions and publications to make to stay inside China?
ZGBriefs | August 17, 2017
Five Things Every New Expat Should Know (August 14, 2017, The Culture Blend)
There is nothing in the world like the beginning of a cross-cultural experience. It is a jumbled, beautiful mess of every possible emotion, wrapped in giddy wonder, coated in absolute confusion.
ZGBriefs | August 10, 2017
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'China has conquered Kenya': Inside Beijing's new strategy to win African hearts and minds (August 7, 2017, The Los Angeles Times)
As a digital infrastructure provider, StarTimes is helping African states transition from analog television — a technology akin to FM radio, rife with snow, static and dropped signals — to digital, which ensures high-quality image and sound. As a pay-TV company, it is stacking its networks with pro-China broadcasts. As both, it is materially improving the lives of countless Africans, then making China’s role in those improvements impossible to ignore.
ZGBriefs | August 3, 2017
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The Elderly Are Becoming the New Self-Governing Subjects in China (August 2, 2017, China Policy Institute)
Senior citizens, now retired from decades of public and productive life contributing to the nation’s GDP and nation-building, are now private citizens with ageing bodies and often declining health. […] This shift of their social identity from productive worker to individual consumer puts elderly individuals in China at a moral and ethical crossroads, caught between traditional, family-oriented values of personal sacrifice and new individualistic practices.
ZGBriefs | July 27, 2017
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No Man’s City – A Chinese Blogger’s Powerful Essay About The “Fake Lives” of Beijing Residents (July 26, 2017, What’s on Weibo)
An essay titled “Beijing Has 20 Million People Pretending to Live Here” by Chinese blogger Zhang Wumao (å¼ äº”æ¯›) has gone viral on Chinese social media, sparking wide debate on life in China’s capital. The essay describes how Beijing has changed into a city that is overrun by ‘outsiders’ and no longer belongs to the ‘old Beijingers.’ Chinese state media say the essay, which is now censored, polarizes the relations between Beijing’s locals and immigrants.
ZGBriefs | July 20, 2017
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The secret lives of Chinese missionaries in northern Iraq (July 16, 2017, South China Morning Post)
Used to persecution at home, two young Chinese Christians say life can be more peaceful in northern Iraq, where they work with Yazidi refugees.
ZGBriefs | July 13, 2017
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China Tells Carriers to Block Access to Personal VPNs by February (July 10, 2017, Bloomberg)
Beijing has ordered state-run telecommunications firms, which include China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to bar people from using VPNs, services that skirt censorship restrictions by routing web traffic abroad, the people said, asking not to be identified talking about private government directives.
ZGBriefs | July 6, 2017
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China, House Churches, and the Growth of the Kingdom (June 29, 2017, Christianity Today)
What goes on in China matters to the Church worldwide; soon, it will be the country with the largest Christian population and, in time, it might have the world’s largest missionary force. When Jesus said He would build His Church, He surely had China in mind.
ZGBriefs | June 29, 2017
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Is a Buddhist Group Changing China? Or Is China Changing It? (June 24, 2017, The New York Times)
Across China, millions of people like Ms. Shen have begun participating in faith-based organizations like Fo Guang Shan. They aim to fill what they see as a moral vacuum left by attacks on traditional values over the past century, especially under Mao, and the nation’s embrace of a cutthroat form of capitalism.