Liz Carter

Contentment may not be what we expect. It may be more profound than we imagine. But it is within easy reach of all of us. If anyone has a right to feel angry with life, then the author is a strong candidate. Having battled with lung disease from a young age, suffered at the hands of bullies, and, reluctantly, given up her much-loved teaching job, she has plenty to complain about. But she has made a point of exploring contentment. She has drawn particularly on Paul's letter to the Philippians. 'Contentment is something we can all catch hold of,' she believes, 'whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.' This is a message which we need to hear, whether we are lifelong sufferers, like the author, or facing deprivation or injustice of another sort. Or we may simply have fallen into bad habits. We cannot fail to be uplifted, and hopefully transformed, by the author's discoveries as we learn to buck trends within society and the church.

From the Occupy movement in the Western world to the Arab Spring and the role of Twitter in the Middle East, the internet and social media is changing the global landscape. China is next. Despite being a heavily-censored society, China has over 560 million active internet users, more than double that of the USA. In this book, social media expert and China-watcher Liz Carter tells the story of how the internet in China is leading to a coming together of activists, ordinary people and cultural trendsetters on a scale unknown in modern history. News about protests and natural disasters, or gossip and satirical jokes, are practically uncensorable and spread quickly through Weibo - the Chinese Twitter - and the Chinese internet underground. More than that, a grassroots, foundational shift of assumptions and expectations is taking place, as Chinese men and women cast off the communistera 'stability at all costs' mantra and find new forms of selfexpression, creativity and communication with the world.