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Chinese Culture
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The Water We Swim In
We bring to China our view of the world and our place in it, our sense of “the way things ought to be,” our values and priorities. Through this lens, we try to make sense of a culture and people very different from ourselves.
Restoring Our True Face: From Cultural Survival to Christlike Peacemaking
Changing Normal is a book that I have revisited often. Re-reading the chapters is like confiding in a friend committed to help me persevere in the same direction for the sake of love.
“Shrewd as Snakes”?
Just as the serpent maneuvers and weaves through its environment, we can adopt an outward appearance of compliance while preserving inner principles.
Breaking Hell
The distortion and contamination of love have led to the belief that “hell is other people,” but even more poignantly, “hell is family.” In close relationships, it is not magic but love and forgiveness that hold the key to breaking free from hell.
Searching for the Light of Life—Reflections on the Lantern Festival
As Christians, have we truly found the light of life?
Why Should Chinese Philanthropy Practitioners Read “Corporate Philanthropy in China and Beyond”?
I believe Chinese practitioners can learn from the altruistic ethos of viewing wealth as a trust from God. Adopting this perspective can free us from being disillusioned by institutional corruption, ungrateful beneficiaries, or inactive wealthy individuals.
Slithering Into the Year of the Snake
As we welcome the Year of the Snake, our team has prepared a short video to send heartfelt New Year’s blessings to all our readers! We also invite you to explore our archive of articles that delve into the spiritual and cultural dimensions of the Lunar New Year.
Snake in the Chinese Culture and Serpent in the Bible
As the Year of the Snake is approaching, amidst the blessings of the Year of the Snake and the music of the “Dance of the Golden Snake”, Chinese Christians can meditate on the many snake-related verses in the Bible, and come to God in thanksgiving and prayer.
Divine Dance
We need to go beyond dogma and statements to show and tell in more holistic, contextual and embodied ways. As the apostles declared and displayed Christ through prayer and worship (Acts 4:24; 16:25; Philippians 2:5-10), so can we find unique expressions that are embedded and empowered in our own cultures and tongues.
The Double Ninth Festival
Celebrated annually on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, the Double Ninth Festival (重陽節/重阳节) falls on October 11 in 2024. From a Christian perspective on traditional Chinese festivals, it provides an opportunity to reflect on biblical values like wisdom, longevity, and honoring elders, blending cultural heritage with faith.
Crossing Cultures: Conveying the Gospel
Worldviews are extraordinarily resistant to change, and archetypical cultural and gospel metaphors shape how missionaries convey the gospel across cultural boundaries. That is why it is so important for Chinese missiologists to “understand and critically integrate” imported cultural and metaphor worldview presuppositions lest what they “staunchly affirmed as biblical may have had more to do with nurturing cultural mores…than with God’s eternal truth,” as Brent Fulton writes.