hina's immense size, enormous population, and long history undermine broad generalizations about the country. Many statements about it can be true but, like the yin and yang of traditional Chinese cosmology, their opposites can also be true. When a topic as large as the state of religion in China is a writer's subject, we should appreciate the interpretive challenges it poses.
Ian Johnson certainly does. A former correspondent in the Wall Street Journal's Beijing bureau and among this generation's best China-focused journalists, Johnson writes widely about Chinese politics and culture. His 2004 book, Wild Grass, based on travels around the country, is a classic. The Souls of China, another masterpiece of reportage, will soon join it.
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