Brent Fulton Talks about Hong Kong
On September 30, Austin Hill, host of the Austin Hill in the Morning program on Faith Radio, interviewed Brent Fulton about the situation in Hong Kong.
Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs.
Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and Chinese Culture and Communication at Wheaton College (IL) and Taylor University (IN).
Joann has a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and an MA in teaching from the University of St. Thomas (MN).
She is the author of Survival Chinese Lessons and The Bells Are Not Silent: Stories of Church Bells in China.
Her personal blog, Outside-In can be found at joannpittman.com, where she writes on China, Minnesota, traveling, and issues related to "living well where you don't belong."
You can find her on Twitter @jkpittman.com and on Facebook at @authorjoannpittman.
She makes her home in New Brighton, Minnesota.
On September 30, Austin Hill, host of the Austin Hill in the Morning program on Faith Radio, interviewed Brent Fulton about the situation in Hong Kong.
Earlier this month, William Wan wrote an excellent article in the Washington Post, title "Prophet or Judas? Son of China Church Founder Tackles Thorny Legacy." The article introduces us to YT Wu, the man who, in the 1950s founded the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee that became the umbrella organization for Protestant Churches in China. The article is specifically about Wu's son's attempts to access his father's personal diaries, which remain in the hands of the government.
The past year has seen a steady stream of stories about foreign companies in China being under investigation for regulatory violations and/or outright corruption. The offices of Microsoft were raided. Japanese, German, and American automakers are being probed. Two British nationals working for GlaxoSmithKline were recently jailed. And a Canadian couple that ran a business in the border region near North Korea has been detained on suspicion of stealing state secrets.
"Stream of Praise," a California-based music ministry has had a profound influence on the music sung in churches in China. If you have been to China and attended an urban house church or a "youth service" at a Three-self Church, then you have most likely listened to, or sung, their songs. Founded in 1993, they have written 330 songs, and sung at more than 1000 events around the world.
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."
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.
I have done a lot of cross-cultural training over the years for people heading off to work in China, and one of the resources that I turn to again and again is Turning Bricks into Jade: Critical Incidents for Mutual Understanding among Chinese and Americans. Edited by Mary Wong and others, this book is a collection of "critical incidents" or stories of cross-cultural conflict and misunderstanding between Chinese and Americans.
On Tuesday, August 12, Brent Fulton was a guest on the "Connecting Faith" program of KTIS-AM radio in Minneapolis-St. Paul. If you were not able to listen to the broadcast live, have no fear; the entire one-hour program is available in podcast form on the radio station website.
On Monday, The Diplomat published an article titled "Why is China Nationalizing Christianity?" The subtitle read "Last week China announced that it was nationalizing Christianity. What are the motives behind this?"
Rev. Stephen Um, pastor of City Life Presbyterian Church in Boston, recently talked with the folks at China Partnership about his observations and hope for the Chinese church.
"Where are their pastors?" my Chinese colleague asked incredulously as she counted the visible tattoos on the arms and legs of some of the newly arrived Christian English teachers. "How can their pastors allow them to have tattoos?"