1/ A few notes on the protests near Najiaying mosque this past weekend. Residents actually heard in 2019 their place of worship would be forcibly altered like at least hundreds of others across China already, but managed to delay npr.org/2023/05/31/117… 2/ In my years of reporting on faith communities in China, I heard lots from Hui about Najiaying + nearby Shadian. Wealthy & influential centers of Islamic faith & education, they’d also been the site of immense oppression and resistance. See @aliceysu’s newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

Yang's story reflects 20th century China and Taiwan history. Yang survived a Japanese occupation+civil war before starting life over at 21 in Taipei. How did a migrant from Shanxi start making Shanghai-style dumplings?
npr.org/2023/03/29/116… Din Tai Fung is as much Yang's creation as that of his wife, Taiwan-born Lai Penmei. They dated in secret for years - bc like many migrants, Yang had married on the mainland. By all accounts, they remained strong partners in love, life, and business.
gvm.com.tw/article/101077

A publishing editor. An accountant and rock music fan. Young journalists. A techno fan who happened to be at a bar near the Liangma River when protestors held a peaceful vigil against Zero Covid on November 27. Now they - almost all women- are arrested.
npr.org/2023/01/11/114… Among the 8 @NPR could confirm were arrested, nearly all are young female professionals, not activists."The security forces' working theory seems to be that a group of feminists influenced by Western ideas organized the demonstrations," says a friend.
npr.org/2023/01/11/114…

Strong focus on ideology from Xi Jinping at Party Congress today:"Marxism is the fundamental guiding ideology upon which our party and country are founded and thrive. Our experience has taught us that at the fundamental level we owe our success... to the fact that Marxism works." Xi warns in his lookahead of "dangers; be prepared to deal with worst case scenarios and be read to withstand high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms on our journey ahead." His prescription for such challenges: "upholding party’s leadership."

1/ This story has generated vitriolic backlash in China, and reporting it turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. A Tweet thread 🧵on reporting in China these days:

Last year, we lined up interviews with factories and government noodle officials (yes, they exist)

https://twitter.com/EmilyZFeng/status/1483632947370467331

2/ The (entirely private) factories told us later they in fact needed provincial propaganda department approval to do any interview. This is not true. China's own laws from its State Council say foreign journalists merely need interviewee consent. ipc.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wgjzzhzn/2…

A few weeks ago, @Amy_23_Cheng and I journeyed to rural Shandong. We found an immense effort to reshape China's vast countryside by "pulling" thousands of villages out and moving residents "up" into high rises.
npr.org/2020/08/01/898… When we arrived at one village partially demolished only days before, despite a provincial order forbidding forcible demolitions, I heard something I've never heard before in China: "THE JOURNALISTS HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED." We were quickly swarmed.

THREAD: 80% of imams in Henan banished. The remaining subjected to ideological training - sometimes lasting days. Islamic schools in Yunnan, Henan and Ningxia outright closed. Where Xinjiang was in 2015, the Hui across China are now going thru. My story:
npr.org/2019/09/26/763… I got past checkpoints into Weizhou, Ningxia, where more than 1 yr ago residents staved off a demolition order. Residents told me last Nov they had to sign letters agreeing to "renovate" the mosque. State employees wld be fired if they didn't. Here's what Mosque looks like today: