Tag: Filial Piety
The Importance of Filial Piety
Especially at a Distance
Our friends in Asia suspected that we did not want to take care of our family members, our parents in particular, and so we came to their country. They couldn’t understand that we had come for any other reason.
Remembering the Dead
Finding ways as Christians to respect, honor, and remember the departed.
Chinese Missionaries—Being Filial and Faithful
Chinese children generally want to please their parents. Traditional Chinese culture encourages this, and those children who fall outside of this cultural norm may even be looked down upon by their peers. So what do Chinese Christians do if they want to become missionaries? How can they blend their responsibilities toward parents with the calling they feel from God to go to a foreign country to share the gospel?
Chinese Filial Responsibility and Missionary Sustainability
Parent and Extended Family Issues and Their Effect on Chinese Missionary Sustainability
The Chinese church passionately desires participation in missionary sending to unreached peoples. Nevertheless Chinese missionary attrition rates are high. A study performed using interviews with long-term Chinese missionaries and focus groups with short-term Chinese medical missionaries revealed several factors related to missionary attrition. This article examines the role of one of those factors—parent and extended family issues—and offers suggestions for resolving difficulties.
Leaving Parents
In a culture that values filial piety, how do Christian couples live out the Biblical teaching that “a man shall leave his father and his mother.” Does it simply refer to geographical leaving, or does it also encompass emotional and psychological leaving? It is a common and difficult question that many Christians face. In the following translated article, originally published on the public WeChat account of Green Olive Books, the authors put forth their understanding of what this means in a Chinese context, arguing that “leaving” is a prerequisite to a happy marriage.
A Chinese Christian Funeral for My Grandmother
A young Chinese Christian faces the challenge of honoring the faith of her Christian grandmother at her funeral in a rural community in China.
We’ve Come this Way Before
Throughout history as various attempts have been made to introduce the gospel to China, a series of “perennial questions” have arisen regarding the relationship between the Christian faith and Chinese culture.
Responses to the Cruise Ship Sinking
On June 1, a cruise ship on the Yangtze River sank during a violent storm, killing more than 400 passengers. Because the ship sank so fast, there were only eight survivors, including the captain. The government launched a massive rescue and salvage operation, eventually righting the ship and recovering the bodies of those who had died. As is the case in any country now, Chinese citizens went online to express their grief. Christians joined the conversation as well, using the incident to reflect on the meaning of life and death and the urgency of spreading the gospel. In this article, translated from Christian Times, the author offers three things for Christians to consider.
Caring for Elderly Parents
China is facing some unique demographic challenges, not the least of which is an aging population. Currently, roughly 8% of the population is 65 or older. However, according to a report by the BBC, that number is expected to be 12% by 2020, and 26% by 2050.