Results tagged “religion”

   

Despite being known in the past for their asceticism, it looks like a new breed of monk is out to "have fun." Chinese monks seem to have given up their wooden bowls for much more "fashionable" accessories - fast cars and women.

• China will start providing two imported HIV drugs, Viread and Kaletra, to patients who have started developing resistance to cheaper, domestic alternatives. This means that nine of 20 drugs to combat AIDS are now available to patients in China.
• The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has condemned China's deportation of a musician from Cape Town, South Africa, who was ordered to leave China within 48 hours when health authorities found she was HIV-positive. Apparently, the woman was not even informed or counselled about her HIV test.
• Health authorities in Henan province claim that significant improvements have been made in controlling HIV/AIDS and that death rates there are "closer to the normal mortality rate and lower than the national average". According to them, Zhumadian, one of the cities hit by illegal blood sales in the 1990s, has seen death rates more than halved to 5 percent in the past six years.

• Black and White Cat translates a collection of headlines from the earliest editions of Xinhua Daily, Jiangsu Province's oldest party newspaper. In its bid to oust the Kuomintang, the CCP positioned itself as a champion of democracy and demanded for change, human rights and general elections.
• Tao Wang of UBS explains to Thomas Crampton why he thinks the new wave of unemployment is unlikely to cause unrest in China.
• EastSouthWestNorth has a set of pictures of what is supposed to be Guangdong's most run-down school.

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Short 50 second report on CCTV with footage from Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Beijing showing how Muslims across China are celebrating Eid Al Adha, the holiest feast in the Islamic calendar conducted to mark the end of the Haj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Photo from fateless_gypsy

Ramadan, Islam's holiest season has just begun, and as Muslims around the world begin a month-long period of prayer and fasting, manufacturers across the Middle East have little reason to smile as they find themselves edged out with increasing numbers of Chinese producers flooding their markets with products that are cheaper and better than their own. Adding salt to injury is the fact that many of these products are symbols of their own cultural and history. Gulf News reports that made-in-China Ramadan lanterns are all the rage now, much to the chagrin of traditional Egyptian craftsmen:

Since walking into the vocation of lantern-making more than 30 years ago, Ahmad Abdul Gafour has been attached to Ramadan.

Continue reading "Chinese manufacturers kill producers of Ramadan lanterns and keffiyeh's in the Mid East"

We've previously noted how Al-Jazeera's treatment of the Tibet issue tends to be somewhat lopsided, but this latest report on Islam in China which features interviewees from both ends of the political spectrum does exhibit cognisance of the various sensitivities and the interplay of a variety of complex factors. The heterogeneity of Muslims in China makes them a highly fascinating group to study, if we can even consider them as a "group" to begin with. The longstanding suspicions among Uyghurs of the Hui's are underscored by activist Rebiya Kadeer's assertion that many of the spies employed by Chinese intelligence in Xinjiang are Hui Muslims — an ethnic group that accounts for about half of China's 22 million Muslims. The main distinction that sets the Hui's apart from the Han's is derived from their practice of Islam and in many cases, there is no genetic distinction between the Hui's and the Han's due to a decision by the Communist Party in the 1930s to define Hui's as an umbrella group for all Sinophone Muslims.

"The Chinese gymnasts could have picked out their leotards from Thumbelina's closet as they performed gymnastics in miniature on Wednesday. Wearing blue eye shadow with their hair pulled back, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin looked like girls who had just rummaged through their mothers' makeup. "

Human Rights in China says underground pastor and religious dissident Hua Huiqi has escaped from the police after being detained together with his older brother while they were on their way to the Kuanjie Protestant Church in Beijing for a service that President George Bush was scheduled to attend. Both men are said to have been roughed up and "warned that their legs would be broken if they persisted in their efforts to attend church services", but the older Hua was soon released. Subsequently though, while his minders were fast asleep, Hua Huiqi managed to make his escape and is now in hiding. While the Beijing PSB has declined to confirm Hua's detention, the older brother says he has received numerous phone calls from them asking about the pastor's whereabouts. Calls made by the IHT to Hua's brother were disconnected several times due to alleged phone tapping by PSB agents. [Source]

This time security guards were stabbed to death outside of Kashgar in Xinjiang. [Source]

Shanghai Scrap brought us an interesting tidbit over the weekend on the results of the Pope's landmark letter to Chinese Catholics released a year ago on June 30, 2007. The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) reports that the Pope's call for reconciliation between "underground" and "open" Catholic communities has seen some positive results. UCAN cites open and underground priests engaging in dialogue with each other, and Shanghai Scrap's Adam Minter points out a significant development in Tianjin, where more underground Catholics are attending Masses in Xikai Cathedral, a cathedral where open-Church priests preside. Underground Tianjin Catholics previously refused to enter the cathedral and instead chose to pray at the Marian grotto outside. Minter regards the Tianjin situation as exemplary in explaining the misuse of the term "underground" Catholics:

the mere use of the term “underground” is misleading, as it suggests a community of believers who meet - and exist - in secret. But, in today’s China, nothing could be further from the truth... Just to be clear: the open Catholics pray inside the cathedral, the underground Catholics pray outside the cathedral...if Tianjin’s underground Catholics were trying to remain “underground,” they couldn’t have chosen a more public place to do it.

Urumqi police have raided an apartment which housed 15 ethnic Uyghurs and alleged Islamic terrorists shouting "sacrifice for Allah". A spokesman said they tried to break out when police used tear gas to flush them out, wielding knives and injuring one policeman. Subsequently, police shot dead five, injured another two (which were sent to the hospital) and captured the remaining nine. A Xinhua report says the suspects have confessed that they've been planning for a 'holy war' to kill 'infidel' Han people. [Reuters] [The Telegraph]

China has been pulling out all the stops to make next month's Olympics in Beijing – and several other cities – go according to script. Aside from the usual massive building projects associated with the Games, China has also seriously tightened its visa policy, saturated its citizenry with Olympic propaganda and denied foreign media direct access to most Chinese athletes.

Photo from indrasensi

Chairman of China Southern Airlines, Liu Shaoyong (刘绍勇) piloted the inaugural flight from Guangzhou to Taipei yesterday carrying 258 passengers. On landing at the Taoyuan International Airport, the 100 or so mainland tourists were given a warm welcome including this lion dance and an Taiwanese aboriginal dance you see in the video, but later in the day, they were also greeted by Falun Gong members at a popular tourist site. This first encounter remained civil but the group outlawed as a spiritual cult in China has promised to step up its presence at all the scenic spots that mainland tour groups will visit, so that "they can see our freedom, and we can change their thinking."

This report from France 24, an international 24-hour news channel, profiles the Hui community in Ningxia province in Northern China. Of the 20 million Muslims currently living in China, half belong to the Hui community, and one fifth of this community lives in Ningxia. The episode shows the special schools where Hui children learn Arabic and the Koran along with the regular Chinese curriculum. It also describes the Hui healthcare system, which blends treatments based on the series of ablutions performed before entering a mosque with traditional Chinese medicinal techniques. An interesting look at the way Hui culture has absorbed Chinese influences into an Islamic base.

This PBS documentary on the underground church movement produced by the Chicago Tribune's Beijing Bureau chief Evan Osnos can now be watched online here, and it is as we said it would be — groundbreaking.

Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap reveals that Italian reporter Francesco Liello from La Gazzetta Dello Sport — the wonderful guy that conjured up the Olympic Bible ban story which went on to cause quite a bit of a brouhaha — has been carrying the Olympic torch in Hubei, and the best part is, nobody seemed to realise who this guy was or what he did! In related news, China has decided to totally drop the international leg of the Paralympic torch relay, citing the Sichuan earthquake as the reason and saving itself from the headache of having to deal with more protests on foreign territory.

Jesus seems to be making a comeback in the PRC. Since the introduction of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries to China, many of them to Shanghai, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Christianity has been a popular minority religion. While practice abated during Mao’s hay day, China has experienced a resurgence in past years. Just two weeks ago, we reported that Orthodox priests were allowed to lead a service in Shanghai for the first time in over four decades. An article by the Chicago Tribune shows this incident may be indicative of a larger trend of successful Christian advocacy, some of which may challenge the Chinese government’s role as supreme authority over its citizens:

As China's Christian population has climbed to an estimated 70 million, a growing number of lawyers and scholars have converted to Christianity and turned their skills to the issue of religious freedom. They are teaming up with churches to challenge the government in court, suing for the rights they believe are guaranteed under China's constitution.

Continue reading "Jesus Christ Superstar! (and other religious news)"

Right: France24 says Ningxia is China's halal food capital, exporting some US$100 million worth of halal products last year. The impoverished province is home to some 10% of Chinese Muslims and is getting its act together to tap into the world's steadily growing halal market.

The Olympic athletes coming to Beijing in August might not be the only ones competing at the Games. Many Christian missionary groups are salivating at the opportunity to compete for all those heathen souls in the Orient. As FaithWorld blogs reports:

Doing covert missionary work in difficult areas — usually Muslim countries— is a challenge some Christian groups relish.

This great sporting event presents a unique opportunity to make the life-changing message of the Bible available to thousands of athletes and visitors from all over China-– and all over the world.

Photo from gruntzooki

The Press Association: China says quake lake alert is over

Photo from Mike Chen

• Cara Anna of the AP reports police dragged away over 100 parents protesting outside the courthouse in Dujiangyan (都江堰) holding pictures of their children who died in the Sichuan earthquake:

  "Why?" some of them yelled. "Tell us something," they said as black-suited police wearing riot helmets yanked at them.

  Continue reading "After the earthquake, it's time to get harmonious again, people!"

Recently, Shanghaiist has been getting a whole load of clicks from a most unlikely source, GodHatesFags.com — official website of the loonies at the highly controversial, virulently homophobic, and dangerously extremist Westboro Baptist Church. Clicking over, we found that in addition to calling us "slant-eyed bastards" for an article we wrote about them a long time ago, the "church" has just released yet another press release (pictured here), thanking God for the "Great Killer Earthquake that He sent to kill thousands of stiffhearted Chinese rebels against God". In addition, they pray for "many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese".

Looks like evangelist Franklin Graham who previously made the news in the China Daily for "hoping to do more for China" is seriously putting his money where his mouth is. Speaking from Shanghai after a tour of Beijing, Hangzhou and Nanjing, the CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (named after his dad) and international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse has just donated a whopping RMB2 million, or US$285,000. That's a whole lot of money, ladies and gentlemen! To put things into perspective, even Singapore, which has one of the world's highest GDP per capita, only managed a paltry US$200,000 or RMB1.4 million.

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"China, with a large economic size, would not face recession after the Olympic Games, the World Bank's new chief economist Justin Yifu Lin said on Sunday."