I love living in China and have immersed myself in Chinese culture. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go since I arrived here in 1991—many who approach China with negative attitudes and misconceptions.
I’d like to share my thoughts about how to enjoy this culture that God loves. Specifically, I want to note some wrong approaches to China that I hope will instruct us in a better way.
It was June 2000. I was on my first trip to China. In fact, it was my first time to leave the United States. My team and I spent six weeks meeting students, sharing the gospel, and helping in other ways.
Come visit me at the “Waffle House” of northwest China!
Gift giving is tricky in any culture—even our own.
The traditional roles of foreign Christians in China are changing.
What books should be on your China bookshelf?
ChinaSource Senior Vice President Joann Pittman invites two friends, colleagues, and voracious readers—Andrew Kaiser, author of Voices from the Past: Historical Reflections on Christian Missions in China, and Amy Young, author of Looming Transitions: Starting and Finishing Well in Cross-Cultural Service—to join her in a discussion of why it is important to read books about China and which books they find to be most helpful.
Today we are launching our first-ever online training course titled "Serving Well in China" for people working in China or preparing to work in China.
Brent Fulton, president of ChinaSource, talks with Joann Pittman, senior vice president of ChinaSource, and Amy Young, author of Looming Transitions: Starting and Finishing Well in Cross-Cultural Service about five essential keys for adjusting well to the cultural challanges of China. They also introduce ChinaSource Institute and its first on-line course "China: Serving Well Where You Don't Belong," taught by Joann and Amy.
In many ways our worldview can be thought of as our operating system—the way in which we process and organize information and make sense of the world. For westerners, our worldview is built on legal frameworks such as guilt and innocence; however, most non-western cultures process the world based on honor and shame.
On Thursday night my landlady called and asked if she could come over to see me because she had some translation questions for me. Anyone who's been in China for a while knows the fear and dread that well up inside at the sound of someone asking for help with translation work. "Just read it over. It won't take long." Those words always precede hours of painful and laborious mental gymnastics trying to translate phrases, like the one in the title of this post, from what we call "Chinglish" to English.
“Fresh off the boat,” an old phrase referring to new arrivals, described me well in 1983 as I began my new life as an overseas worker in Hong Kong. Being quite naïve about Chinese culture, I was excited to hear from my colleagues that I would receive a beautiful silk jacket from our Chinese co-workers as they had in years past. And during Chinese festivals I would receive other special gifts and be invited to delicious banquets—it all sounded wonderful to me!