Ian Johnson (born July 27, 1962) is a Canadian-born American writer and independent scholar known for his long-time reporting and a series of books on China and Germany. His Chinese name is Zhang Yan (張彦). Johnson writes regularly for ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and speaks in Europe and North America. He has taught university courses at

The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies (or TBC) was established by Fr. Ron Anton, SJ as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1998. TBC's mission is to promote mutual understanding between China and other cultures, while facilitating international academic op ...

, and has been an adviser to ''

The Journal of Asian Studies ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Asian Studies, covering Asian studies, ranging from history, the arts, social sciences, to phil ...

''. Johnson won the 2001

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

for his coverage in the '' Wall St. Journal'' of the

persecution of Falun Gong The persecution of Falun Gong is the antireligious campaign initiated in 1999 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to eliminate the spiritual practice of Falun Gong in China, maintaining a doctrine of state atheism. It is characterized by ...

practitioners in China. His reporting from China was also honored in 2001 by the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

and the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

. In 2017 he won

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Shorenstein Prize Shorenstein is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Carole Shorenstein Hays (born 1948), American theatrical producer * Douglas W. Shorenstein (1955–2015), American real estate developer * Joan Shorenstein (1947–1985), Ameri ...

for his body of work covering Asia. In 2019 he won the

American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a profes ...

's "best in-depth newswriting" award. In 2020, Johnson's journalist visa was canceled amid US-China tensions over

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

and the

COVID-19 epidemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

, and he left China.

Life and work

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, Johnson is a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

United States citizen who lived in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China, for more than twenty years. He attended

Chamberlain High School George D. Chamberlain High School is a public high school in Tampa, Florida, United States. It was opened in 1956 on North Boulevard (on the corner of Busch Boulevard). The school is named in honor of George D. Chamberlain, who served for several ...

in Tampa, Florida. He first visited China as a student in 1984 and later studied Chinese in Taiwan. From 1994 to 1997 he worked in Beijing for ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

'' and from 1997 to 2001 for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. After working in Berlin, Germany, for nearly eight years he returned to China in 2009. In 2004, Johnson published ''Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China'' (Pantheon) on grassroots efforts to form

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

in Europe. He conducted research on the book while on a Nieman fellowship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. In 2017, he published ''The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao'' about China's search for meaning and values. It included a 100-page profile of Early Rain Reformed Church in

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

and its pastor

Wang Yi (pastor) Wang Yi (; born June 1, 1973), pen name Wang Shuya (), is the founding pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church (), a Calvinist house church in Chengdu. He is also a productive writer, editor, and social activist, and was a legal scholar at Chengd ...

who was arrested in 2018 for

incitement to subvert state power Inciting subversion of state power () is a crime under the law of the People's Republic of China. It is article 105, paragraph 2 of the 1997 revision of the People's Republic of China's Penal Code.Nan Huai-Chin Nan Huai-Chin () (March 18, 1918 – September 29, 2012) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, religious scholar, and writer. A well-regarded spiritual teacher in contemporary China, he was considered by many to be the major force in the revival ...

as well as research on

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

's support for traditional religions, especially

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, when he was head of

Zhengding County Zhengding (), originally Zhending (), is a county in southwestern Hebei Province, North China, located approximately south of Beijing. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Shijiazhuang, the capital of the province, and ...

in the 1980s. ''The Souls of China'' was voted one of the best books of the year by ''The Economist'' and ''The Christian Science Monitor''. He has published chapters in three other books: ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China,'' ''Chinese Characters'', and ''My First Trip to China''. He attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, where he studied Asian Studies and Journalis
Nieman Watchdog > About Us > Contributor > Ian Johnson
He obtained his master's degree in Sinology from the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. On February 9, 2006, Johnson delivered congressional testimony on the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

in Europe. He described the Brotherhood as "an umbrella group that regularly lobbies major international institutions like the EU and the Vatican" and "controls some of the most dynamic, politically active Muslim groups in key European countries, such as Britain, France and Germany." He said the group has schools "to train

imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

s," has funded a "mechanism in the guise of a UK-registered charity," and has a fatwa council to enforce ideological conformity.Muslim Brotherhood in Europe
, February 9, 2006, Ian Johnson, Congressional Testimony - published with the AIFD Johnson left the ''Wall Street Journal'' in 2010 to pursue magazine and book writing on cultural and social affairs.

Bibliography

Books

* * *

Essays and reporting

Ex-Colony Weihai Ponders What Might Have Been
Wall Street Journal, June 24, 1997
Can't We All Just Get Along? Are European Muslims Islam's best hope?
Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2004

Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2008 *"Will the Chinese be supreme?",

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, 04.04.201
Will the Chinese Be Supreme?
* Profile of

Hengdian World Studios Hengdian World Studios () is a film studio located in Hengdian, a Chinese town in the city of Dongyang, Zhejiang Province. It is one of the largest film studios in the world. The movie studio is operated by the privately owned Hengdian Group foun ...

. * * * Ian Johnson, "What Holds China Together?", ''

'', vol. LXVI, no. 14 (26 September 2019), pp. 14, 16, 18. "The

Manchus The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Q ...

... had n 1644conquered the last ethnic Chinese empire, the

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

nd_established_Imperial_China's_last_dynasty,_the_Qing.html" ;"title="Qing.html" ;"title="nd established Imperial China's last dynasty, the Qing">nd established Imperial China's last dynasty, the Qing">Qing.html" ;"title="nd established Imperial China's last dynasty, the Qing">nd established Imperial China's last dynasty, the Qing.. The Manchus expanded the empire's borders northward to include all of Mongolia, and westward to Tibet and Xinjiang." [p. 16.] "China's rulers have no faith that anything but force can keep this sprawling country intact." [p. 18.]

References

External links

*Ian Johnson (2001
Pulitzer Prize winning articles in the Wall Street Journal

Ian Johnson (website)
*
Language Wars, from Montreal to Beijing
* . YouTube. {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Ian Denis Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners Canadian journalists American male journalists Living people The New Yorker people Nieman Fellows University of Florida alumni 1962 births