In 1982, the film Chariots of Fire won four Oscars, including Best Picture. It told the stories of two British runners, including Eric Liddell, a Scottish athlete born in China who refused to compete in the 100-meter heats because they were scheduled on a Sunday.
Ziyin Wang (王子因) is a Chinese-American filmmaker and founder of the ministry Love in China Communications. Since the early 2000s, he has dreamed of producing a film about Eric Liddell’s life after the 1924 Paris Olympics. Following God’s call on his life, Liddell returned to China as a missionary, eventually dying in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
The film is titled Flying Man.
I recently talked with Ziyin about his life and how God called him to produce this film.
What is your professional background?
In 1992, after graduating from a major university with a journalism degree, I began work at a local television station as a reporter, cameraman, and editor. Later, at age 28, I was promoted to head of the news department, where I supervised more than 100 news anchors, reporters, and editors. This is where I learned production work for live broadcasting and documentaries. It was an extraordinary opportunity because I was not a member of the Chinese Communist Party, which is usually required for such a position. I think this was a blessing from God and was part of his divine purpose for my life.
How did you become a Christian?
I made a decision to follow Christ in 1998. At that time, my wife and parents also became Christians. Because I worked for a state-controlled media company, it was difficult for me to participate in a local church. As a family, we studied the Bible and worshipped together at home. We were secret believers.
Why did you go to the United States?
In 2001, I went to the US to pursue a master’s degree in journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. At that time, I expected that China would eventually become more open. I wanted to prepare for that future, for a more open China, a new era.
Those years in Connecticut were a time of spiritual growth. I began attending an American church and was very eager to study the Bible. We studied the Bible on Friday nights, and I was so excited the night before that I couldn’t sleep. I was baptized there in 2001.
During that time, I lived with an American couple, Fred and Vicky Sigworth, who demonstrated what it means to live as a Christian. Fred was a professor at Yale School of Medicine, and Vicky served with Youth for Christ. When Fred developed cancer and underwent numerous surgeries, the family responded in worship and prayer. Many Christian friends visited and prayed with them.
Their hospitality challenged my understanding of love. At one time, they had taken in a man who had been involved in criminal activity. Rather than defining him by his past, they saw him as someone worthy of love. I was totally humbled. They inspired me in my journey to follow Jesus as a filmmaker and minister.
What did you do after you graduated?
Following graduation in 2003, I was invited to work on the post-production of The Cross: Jesus in China, a four-hour documentary series about Christianity in China. Working on that project convinced me that filmmaking could become a ministry. Later, Christian mentors encouraged me to attend Logos Evangelical Seminary. I graduated in 2006 with an MDiv and continued working in mass communications. I prayed every day and night and realized that God was calling me to mass media ministry.
How did you develop a vision for telling China’s Christian story?
God used three events to call me. The first came in 2002, when my wife’s application for a US visa had been denied three times. I was ready to give up my studies and return to China. As I prayed for guidance, God gave me two verses: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33, NIV) and “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:6, NIV). A few weeks later, her visa was approved. I knelt and promised God that I would put his kingdom first.
The second calling came just before I graduated from Logos Evangelical Seminary. Two churches were considering inviting me to serve as pastor of their Chinese-speaking congregations. As I prayed, God led me to Romans 15:20 (NIV): “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.”
At that time, my wife and I visited Pastor Grant Chen, president of the Blessings Foundation, to seek his advice about where I should serve after graduation. Blessings had supported my seminary studies with a scholarship, and Pastor Chen had been a spiritual mentor to me. He suggested that serving at Blessings might be an option. Although the foundation had limited resources and developing a film ministry would not be easy, after praying together, we felt God was leading us there. In June 2006, I joined Blessings to lead its mass media ministry.
While serving at Blessings, I began to wonder whether film could help more people discover the stories of missionaries who had come to China. I produced a short film called Love in China, featuring Eric Liddell, Hudson Taylor, members of the Cambridge Seven, and Lottie Moon. As the project grew, Love in China Communications became an independent ministry, with Pastor Chen serving as chair of its board.
Eventually, I decided to bring Liddell’s story to the screen, especially his years in China after the Olympics. That became the beginning of Flying Man.
The project also received strong support from Ralph D. Winter, founder of the US Center for World Mission. He wrote to churches recommending the project and encouraged a Hollywood filmmaker to become involved. In 2008, Mission Frontiers, which he edited, published “The Flying Man: China Rediscovers Its Hero”, a feature on Liddell’s story and our film project. In 2009, I left Blessings and continued working on the film through Love in China Communications.1
The third calling came in October 2025, after years of setbacks with Flying Man. By 2015, after several years of development and numerous revisions, we finally had a viable screenplay. But we struggled with funding and production, and by 2018 the project had stalled. The pandemic brought further disruption.
I entered a very dark period of self-doubt and began questioning God. Hadn’t we tried our best? If you don’t need to use me, what am I supposed to do? I struggled with depression and discouragement for several years and withdrew from many ministry opportunities. I felt powerless.
My wife, pastors, and friends continued to encourage me. Eventually, I began exercising again, and God used that, too, to help me emerge from this difficult period.
Then, in October 2025, I was invited to preach at a small Chinese church in California. I asked the members to invite friends who were not Christians. Before the service, I prayed, “Lord, give me one sign that you haven’t forgotten me and that you still want me to continue this ministry. Let one nonbeliever accept Jesus.”
I preached on John 15:13 (NIV): “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I shared Eric Liddell’s story and how his life reflected this verse. At the end of the service, twelve nonbelievers came forward to receive Christ. I was shocked! Through this, God confirmed to me that Liddell’s story still had a purpose.
Why do you have a particular interest in Eric Liddell?
Liddell is well known for refusing to run the 100-meter race at the 1924 Olympics because the qualifying heat was scheduled on a Sunday. This story was made famous in the movie Chariots of Fire. Less known is that after the Olympics, he returned to China, where he was born to missionary parents, and served as a missionary and teacher. During World War II, the Japanese interned him and other foreigners in an internment camp. He died there in 1945. In my opinion, the latter part of Liddell’s life deserves wider attention. This is the story of his life and service in China, both before World War II and during his time in the internment camp. I believe his life is an example of sacrificial love that can speak across cultures and generations.
Tell us about your movie, Flying Man.
From the beginning, my vision has been to make Flying Man for audiences beyond the church. Hollywood filmmakers including Bill Badalato, John Terlesky, and Susan Zwerman have worked with me on the project over the years. Even when the production faced serious setbacks, they continued to support the vision.
After many years of setbacks and pauses, I have restarted Flying Man, but with a different approach. Instead of producing it through the traditional movie-production model, I’m exploring new technologies, including AI-assisted filmmaking. This could substantially reduce production costs. My goal, however, remains the same: to release the movie internationally sometime in 2028. I also hope to reach audiences in China through a new distribution method.
This movie is not just the story of a man. It is the story of God’s love, not just for China, but for the whole world. I also hope it will encourage Christians everywhere to participate in the Great Commission. After 18 years, I still want to use this movie to preach the gospel and to tell the world of God’s love.
Although I am not an ordained pastor, God has given me more than 300 opportunities during the past decade to preach the gospel in churches in the US, China, and Europe. I have had the honor to tell the true story of Eric Liddell more than 80 times. During the altar calls, more than 1,000 nonbelievers have come forward to accept Jesus, and more than 10,000 believers have recommitted to following in Eric’s footsteps. This has encouraged me to continue the work God called me to.
To learn more about Love in China Communications, visit loveinchina.org. You can also watch the short film Love in China or learn more about Flying Man and its production company, Flying Man LLC, at flyingmanfilm.com.
- For the early history of Love in China Communications, see the Blessings Foundation’s 30th-anniversary publication (in Chinese), pp. 71–74.
