Most-Read Posts on “Chinese Church Voices”
Have you been keeping up with our publication Chinese Church Voices? If not, here are the five most popular posts of 2014 that you may have missed.
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Poverty and Spiritual Backwardness
In addition to church leaders and ordinary Christians using online forums to discuss matters of faith, academics are joining the conversation as well. On his blog, Professor Liu Peng recently wrote about the relationship between poverty and “spiritual backwardness,” which refers to a spiritual void, or lack of spiritual beliefs. Writing from the perspective of sociology, Professor Peng argues that the most serious type of poverty in China is the “poverty of faith,” and unless that is addressed the problem of material poverty cannot be solved.
Most-Read ChinaSource Blog Posts of 2014
These are the ChinaSource Blog posts that our readers enjoyed the most in 2014. Did you read them? If not, click on the link to see what you missed!
“Joy Up”
Earlier this month, The Economist published an interesting look at the popularity of Christmas in China, a country that is officially atheist, and makes no room for any official celebration of the holiday.
Preparing for Christmas
Churches in China (both registered and unregistered) are taking advantage of the popularity of Christmas to teach people about the true meaning of the festival.
Villagers of the “Chinese Christmas Village” Don’t Know What Christmas Is!
Earlier this month the Chinese web portal Sina posted a photo essay on the town of Yiwu (Zhejiang), where most of the world’s Christmas products come from.
A Ten-Year Visa
This afternoon the good folks at FEDEX delivered a small package to my house, and it wasn’t even a Christmas present. In fact, it was something better — my passport, with a brand-spanking-new Ten-year, multiple entry tourist visa to China.
Don’t Ignore Marxism
Much is written these days about what makes China tick. It's the pragmatism. It's nationalism, and the desire to be a player on the world stage. It's "socialism with Chinese characteristics," which to some is just another way of saying capitalism.
Traditional Chinese Christmas Songs: 《欢乐佳音歌》 & 《圣诞感恩歌》
Guest blogger Joel 大江 shares "some genuine Chinese Christmas songs, as in songs written by Chinese in Chinese and in a Chinese style, rather than sounding like corrupted English songs." This post originally appeared at China Hope Live on December 9, 2012.
Church Schools or Home Schooling? Part 2
In September, the mainland site Christian Times published a piece originally posted on the China Home Schooling Alliance website about Christian education in China. In the article titled “Church Schools or Home Schooling?”, the author lays out what he believes to be the difference between Christian education conducted within a church setting and home schooling. He then sets out to argue that home schooling is the most effective way for Christians to educate their children.
The article provides an interesting glimpse into a conversation online taking place among Christians in China regarding an important issue. Due to the length of the original article, it is posted in two parts. Part 1 was posted on December 9, 2014.
China’s Next Generation
What a difference a decade makes! Over the last ten years the nation of China and the Chinese church have changed significantly; so has…
Survival Chinese Lessons
This book contains 15 short lessons designed to give you just enough language learning to help you function in very basic situations. This is a must for travelers or those who are going to live in China and are looking for a way to get some of the basics.