TheSoulsofChina

China is currently going through a massive spiritual awakening: 300 million Chinese people practice a faith, and tens of millions more follow personal mentors, populist leaders, and New Age figures. This revival commenced in 1982, when the Communist Party indicated that it would permit a small-scale practice of religion under government supervision. However, the number of loyal practitioners grew far beyond the Party’s expectations. Today, China’s cities and villages are dotted with new temples, churches, mosques, cults, sects, and politicians attempting to manipulate religion to their advantage. This regrowth is fueled by a popular longing to rediscover a moral compass in a society driven by unchecked capitalism.

Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, spent six years dwelling with three religious groups: the underground Early Rain Protestant congregation in Chengdu, the Ni family’s Buddhist pilgrimage association in Beijing, and yinyang Daoist priests in rural Shanxi. Johnson synthesizes these experiences into a series of festivals, births, deaths, detentions, and struggles that expose the hearts and minds of the Chinese people—a massive faith reawakening that is molding the soul of the world’s most recent superpower.

作者简介

IanJohnsonisaregularcontributortoTheNewYorkReviewofBooksandTheNewYorkTimes;hisworkhasalsoappearedinTheNewYorkerandNationalGeographic.DuringmorethantwentyyearsofworkinginChinahehaswonthePulitzerPrizeforInternationalReportingandtheShorensteinlifetimeachievementawardforcoveringAsia.AnadvisingeditorfortheJournalofAsian...