Ian Johnson is a regular contributor to The New York
Review of Books and The New York Times; his work has also
appeared in The New Yorker and National
Geographic. During more than twenty years of working in China
he has won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and the
Shorenstein lifetime achievement award for covering Asia. An
advising editor for the Journal of Asian Studies, he also
teaches university courses on religion and society at the Beijing
Center for Chinese Studies. He is the author of two other books
that also focus on the intersection of politics and
religion: Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in
China, and A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the
Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. He lives in
Beijing.
www.ian-johnson.com
“Wonderful. . . . A masterpiece of observation and empathy.” —The
New York Review of Books
“Chinese society is not religious. At least that’s the conventional
wisdom. . . . Ian Johnson brilliantly demonstrates that the
conventional wisdom is wrong.” —The Washington Post
“Moving. . . . A nuanced group portrait of Chinese citizens
striving for non-material answers in an era of frenetic
materialism.” —The Guardian
“A fascinating panorama.” —The Economist
“Compelling. . . . A seminal piece of work taking the reader well
beyond the prejudices and clichés that so often mark writing about
religion in East Asia.” —The Times Literary Supplement
“With a subtlety born of years spent in China, Johnson explains how
traditional rituals help people overcome urban anomie and answer
the ‘pragmatic but profound issue of how to behave’. . . . He sees
believers’ recurrent invocation of ‘heaven’ as an aspiration for
justice and respect, couched as an appeal to a power higher than
the government.” —The New Yorker
“Produces deep insight into China’s multifaceted religious revival.
. . . Distill[s] the results of broad scholarly research with
gentle humor and quiet emotion.” —Foreign Affairs
“Absorbing and often surprising.” —Financial Times
“A deeply knowledgeable, eminently readable and important book that
reveals a side of China that foreigners rarely explore.” —The
Christian Science Monitor
“[Johnson] is at his best, showcasing his mastery of immersive
reporting as he travels with Buddhist pilgrims and lives with
Chinese Christians.” —Foreign Policy
“Takes us on an extraordinarily rich and intimate journey. . . .
Johnson shows us what is really in Chinese souls and hearts. This
vividly written, deeply researched book will be the primary work
about religious faith in China for years to
come.” —Leslie T. Chang, author of Factory Girls
“A rich, informative, and timely book. . . . A tremendous
accomplishment.” —Ha Jin, National Book Award–winning author
of Waiting
“This entrancing and engaging book challenges the modern
assumption that religion is a thing of the past; on the
contrary, the dramatic resurgence of spirituality in
China, after a century of violent persecution, suggests that it is
an irrepressible force that may in some sense be
essential to humanity.” —Karen Armstrong, author
of Fields of Blood
“In Ian Johnson . . . the faithful have found an ideal chronicler.
With the patience of the ethnographer, and the precision of a
journalist, Johnson has produced an enduring account of China’s
inner life at a time of disorienting social and economic change.”
—Asian Review of Books
“Remarkable. . . . Recounts extraordinary tales of courage and
heartbreak.” —The Irish Times
“Captivating. . . . The Souls of China is written like top-flight
journalism—it is driven by the stories of real people, and the
analysis flows out of their lives. At the same time, a reader who
knows the literature (and who reads the endnotes) will see just how
thoroughly grounded Johnson is in the broader range of
scholarship.” —Current History
"In touching, descriptive prose, Johnson brings his subjects to
life amid a colorful backdrop. . . . Engaging, timely, and
humane." —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"Johnson’s writing is compelling and lyrical, and his research
strikes a fluid balance between the political implications . . .
and the implications for daily life." —Publishers Weekly
"Unique in the wide scope of culture and history of China that is
woven into the gripping personal narratives." —Healing Tao
"For anyone interested in looking beyond the headlines to
understand the complexity of religious life in China
today, The Souls of China is a must-read." —Gospel
Coalition
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