Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Johnson will give BIS an exclusive talk about his new book, The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. Hot off the press, it was published in April and is the culmination of a six-year research project about one of the world’s great spiritual revivals. The book looks at why, after a century of violent anti-religious campaigns, China is now filled with new temples, churches and mosques, as well as cults, sects and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty: uncertainty over what it means to be Chinese, and how to live an ethical life in a country that discarded traditional morality a century ago and is still searching for new guideposts.

Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning writer focusing on society, religion, and history. He works out of Beijing and Berlin, where he also teaches and advises academic journals and think tanks. Johnson has spent over half of the past thirty years in the Greater China region, where he now writes features and essays for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and other publications. He was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won in 2001 for his coverage of China.

Beijing International Society (BIS)
Luxembourg Embassy, Residence | 60 RMB | No RSVP Required