My top picks for this week fall into two broad categories: English teaching and violence. The articles about English teaching were of interest to me because once upon a time I was an English teacher in China. The articles on violence are interesting and sober reads and help us understand that underneath the veneer of stability, there are some serious social tensions.
The Chinese Communist Party will hold its "Third Plenum" meeting in Beijing, beginning November 9. All eyes are on General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Party leaders as they unveil a new set of economic reforms. Will they be bold enough to meet the challenges of the day? Will they also include political reforms?
A Chinese Christian writes about the history of the Chinese Church, examines the issues and challenges facing the church today, and looks ahead.
My top picks from this week's ZG Briefs .
A Beijing pastor reflects on the benefits of marriage retreats for Christian couples.
Four of my top picks this week have to do with the Chinese language and language learning.
When I first went to China, I was bombarded with many odd (to me anyway) questions: can you use chopsticks? How much money do you make? Why do American parents kick their children out of the house at age 18? On and on they went.
But I'll never forget the time a student asked me, "What's the difference between Catholic and Christian?"
An overview of Bible production in China
A recent article appearing in Global Times, the English-language mouthpiece of the authoritative People's Daily, raises interesting questions about how China's leaders view the relationship between the official and unofficial church.
An interview with Dr. Fenggang Yang, of Purdue University regarding the Forum for Chinese Theology Symposium.
With over 800 million Han Chinese in China (and over 1.2 billion in China as a whole, including minorities), it's one thing for a church or mission group to "adopt" or "engage" the Han - and another to figure out what that means. This is the situation of many groups in the world that are huge in size. "Who to adopt" can be addressed by websites like the Joshua Project. But "where to go" requires a different approach.
A Chinese government newspaper covers the division between the Three-Self Churches and the house churches.