Ian Johnson – Updates

I’m a passionate tea drinker but normally prefer Chinese greens. In this article for the New York Times travel section, I look at a surprising corner of Germany where more tea is consumed per capital than any other place in the world, and with strange customs and ceremonies. The article concludes with a visit to one of the grand masters of German tea, Willem Hedemann.

Chinese New Year is the time of year when Beijing empties out but for me it’s the best time of the year. The halved population makes for empty streets and subways. In recent years, the city has also seen an upsurge in temple fairs and performances of traditional dance, music and martial arts. I look at this year’s festival in this blogpost for the New York Review of Books.

The liberal Egyptian newspaper El-Watan recently interviewed me on the inherent problems of the Muslim Brotherhood and why it will have difficulty in running a secular state. You can read the interview here and an accompanying piece on CIA support for Islamists here. Both are in Arabic; for non-speakers there’s always Google translate….

In this interview on the NYRB blog, I talk to veteran grassroots activist Huang Qi, whose Tianwang website has been documenting protests since 1999. You can read his explanations for unrest and his surprisingly optimistic take on events by clicking here.