China and the Church: The Perennial Questions
"How many Christians in China?"
"Are believers still persecuted?"
Ideas
Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
Latest
When Influence and Wariness Meet
A big part of observing China is trying to figure out what is really going on. For those following recent events regarding the church in China, this has been especially true.
China’s (Unfinished) Education Explosion
China is in the midst of an education explosion.
China’s Demographic Fork in the Road
Up until the beginning of this decade, China's elderly and young adult populations were growing at roughly the same rate.
Partnering with China’s Church in an Era of Global Convergence
We live in an era when partnership between the church in China and the global church is both desired and increasingly possible. The challenges facing the church in China have evolved significantly in recent decades A survey of these challenges may lead some to conclude that church life in China today is not that much different from church life in the West or among overseas Chinese communities in Asia. Postmodernism, urbanization, secularization, and family breakdown are endemic to industrialized and post-industrialized societies the world over. The difference for China is that it has experienced in thirty years what in most other nations has taken place over a century or more.
China’s Religious Policy: The Unfinished Mandate
China's current policy on religion is spelled out in Central Party Document no. 19, "The Basic Viewpoint and Policy on the Religious Question during Our Country's Socialist Period," issued in March of 1982.
The Difficulty of ‘Urban Missions’ in China
In this article, translated from the site jidutu123.com, the author looks at the challenges of doing urban missions in China. His main point is that doing urban missions, traditionally defined as ministering to the marginalized, is difficult in China because it assumes that Christianity is already part of the mainstream of culture, something that is not true in China. He then calls on the church to look for ways to engage with society rather than standing in opposition to it. Only by doing this will Christianity gain influence in Chinese society.
How Many NGOs does China Really Have?
According to a recent article in The Economist, over the past 25 years half a million non-governmental organizations have registered in China. Another 1.5 million social entities have not registered and are effectively functioning illegally. Many others are registered as businesses.
Under the Microscope?
If you work for a foreign NGO in China and have had the feeling that it has been under a bit more scrutiny lately, it seems that you are not imagining things.
China’s Schizophrenic NGO Policy
As far as I know China's NGO sector doesn't have a theme song, but if it did it would likely be the U2 hit single "With or Without You."
Urbanization and the Future of China’s Church
Along with the massive urbanization that has forever reshaped the social and cultural landscape of China, the church in China has itself undergone a major transformation. From a largely rural, peasant-led movement in the 1980s the church is now very much an urban phenomenon.
Governing Religion with One Eye Closed
I am not a regular reader of Daedalus (although I probably should be), but a few weeks back I downloaded the Spring 2014 edition of the journal Daedalus onto my kindle because the cover caught my eye: "Growing Pains in a Rising China."