Tag: Book Review

Blog Entries

Telling the Truth in China

A Book Review of Sparks

At its most basic level, Sparks presents readers with a host of remarkable women and men who persist in talking about what really happened. In an environment focused on silencing certain aspects of the past, these are the stories of the Chinese citizens who say the quiet part out loud.

Blog Entries

Chinese Christianity Endures, Part 2

Learning from the 18th-Century Church Under Authoritarian Rule

Given China’s place in the world order today, it is very unlikely that they will completely ban all foreigners.... We can be confident that no matter how few the foreigners or how persecuted the flock, our God who makes the rocks cry out in testimony will ensure that his witness is never silenced, and his kingdom continues to advance.

Blog Entries

Chinese Christianity Endures, Part 1

Studying the 18th-Century Church under Authoritarian Rule

The study then takes a closer look at the brief emergence of a comparatively Chinese underground church…before concluding with a fascinating reflection on martyrdom, comparing the Chinese notion of suffering perseverance motivated by filial loyalty to the saints who have gone before with the European concept of sacrificing one’s life for the gospel.

Blog Entries

How Should We Care for Orphans in China?

Adoption—a foundational metaphor of the Christian faith and a challenging topic in the world, especially when intertwined with China’s one-child policy era, international complications, and issues of identity for adoptees. In this collection from the archives, we’ve pulled together reflections, book reviews, and analysis to open up our perspective on adoption from China.

Blog Entries

7 Women Who Braved a Chaotic China

Through the Valley of the Shadow: Australian Women in War-torn China

The women were among the bravest missionaries to serve in China… The authors describe…fending off bandits, experiencing bombing, walking miles and miles to get food, enduring flea bombs dropped on their city, hiding in the woods from violent mobs, and more.

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Chinese Migrants in the Stew Pot of Dubai

A Book Review of Chinese in Dubai

The religious environment [in Dubai] prompts many Chinese expatriates to do some soul-searching… For Muslims… it has meant being in an environment where they are …part of a majority… They feel the pressure of having to be “good citizens” …as they are unofficial ambassadors.

Blog Entries

How Christian Posters Shaped Evangelism in China, 1919–1950

Visions of Salvation—A Book Review

The Christian community contributed a third way to imagine national salvation, an equivalent force to the two major political parties, the Nationalists (KMT) and the Communists (CCP)…. Modernist and Fundamentalists… had a common political vision. They both embraced Chinese nationalism and portrayed Christ as the only power that could overcome imperialism.

Blog Entries

From Brush Strokes to Unicode—How China Became Modern

A Book Review of Kingdom of Characters

Official and popular attitudes towards the written language vacillate between shame (characters are too awkward, slowing China’s development) and pride (characters are China’s unique cultural heritage) …China’s place among the nations rises in tandem with the development of her language, revealing the intimate relationship between linguistic modernization and the modernization of the nation itself.

Blog Entries

Faithful Disobedience as Testimony to the Kingdom

A Book Review

Wang Yi wrote, “The goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world.”

Blog Entries

Saving Grandmother’s Face and Other Tales from Christian Teachers in China

A Book Review

While it is difficult for foreigners to teach in China today, it is not impossible and still well worthwhile. The book reviewed here will bring back poignant memories for many and, we trust, be a reminder to pray for those who are still teaching in China.