I'm sure you've done it, I know I have. Asked a Chinese friend or colleague what stood out to them if they had a chance to visit your home country. I enjoy hearing what stood out to them or to friends who have visited me in China. Their impressions help me to see afresh the places I care about.
Last week five members of the Almighty God cult (formerly known as Eastern Lightning went on trial for brutally murdering a woman in a MacDonalds restaurant in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province. The murder shocked the nation and prompted the government to launch a nationwide crackdown on illegal cults, or xie jiao (lit. evil religion).
Our friends at Catalyst Services picked up on a recent ChinaSource blog by Brent Fulton that asked "Does China Need More Leadership Training?" To further the discussion they asked others who are involved in training leaders globally for their responses to the blog and included them in their monthly e-newsletter.
To celebrate the start of a new school year, two of our top picks this week have to do with language learning. The third one is a look at China's internet censorship regime.
The first time I crossed a cultural boundary; I was but 1 year old! And no, it wasn't my parents whisking me off to some far-off tropical land; it was my family returning to the US after a term of service in Pakistan.
Every Chinese leader since Chairman Mao has had a slogan (and accompanying campaign of some sort) that was meant to define their rule. President Xi Jinping's slogan is "The Chinese Dream." The organizing principle of his predecessor Hu Jintao's rule was "Harmonious Society."
A decade ago David Aikman wrote Jesus in Beijing, provocatively subtitled "How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Balance of World Power."
Mike Falkenstine, President of the China Resource Center, an organization that does Bible distribution in rural churches (registered), recently returned from a trip to China, in which he had the opportunity to seek help from his friends and partners in understanding some of the recent events in China, particularly the cross/church demolition campaigns in Zhejiang.
"This is crazy," I observed to my audience of parents and high school students in Beijing. "Why on earth would parents send their 14- or 15- or 16-year-olds to the other side of the world for schooling, especially when studies show some of the best schools in the world are in your own country?"
The piece translated below is from a post on the Weixin (WeChat) page of the Beijing Gospel Church, one of the citys more prominent house churches. The writer is sharing his thoughts on the nature of worship in the church.
笔者从前在北美， 并与当地的中国留学生一起工作, 他提出北美的中国教会应如何修改自己的策略，以达到这些学生的问题。他与后现代学生接触，并从他的经验来解释及引申有用的例子。
Our top picks this week are all on the lighter side. We hope you find them as interesting as we did.