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Even for someone familiar with China, Amazon’s warehouse of tens of thousands of books can be overwhelming. So let’s say you’re just starting to learn about this vast country and want to read a book or two. Where would you begin?

Here are four books that I often recommend to those who want to start learning about China and what God is doing there.

China Road: Journey into the Future of the Rising Power by Rob Gifford

As he was nearing the end of his assignment as Beijing bureau chief for National Public Radio, Rob Gifford decided to hitch-hike across China from Shanghai to the Kazakhstan border, along Highway 312—-the “Route 66” of China, if you will. The highway winds its way from the glittering lights of Shanghai west through the manufacturing and high-tech corridors of Jiangsu, into the agricultural heartland of Anhui and Henan, up onto the arid plateaus and mountains of Shaanxi, across the deserts of Gansu and Xinjiang, finally ending at the border with Kazakhstan.

Along the journey, Gifford meets a colorful cast of characters. There are the Communist Party “babes” in the Shanghai Starbucks who see nothing contradictory about using their party connections to get rich. In Shaanxi he meets a Daoist hermit who lives in a cave high on the holy mountain of Huashan to escape the rat race, but then tells Gifford to call his cell phone if he has any more questions. As he travels across Ningxia by bus he meets a pair of traveling abortion “doctors” who believe they are fulfilling their patriotic duty by aborting unborn babies in their eighth month. Somewhere between Xi’an and Lanzhou he finds himself in a village church, where he is eventually asked to give the morning sermon when the itinerant preacher they await never shows up.

More than anything else, this book deftly portrays the contradictions of modern China and the resulting conflicted emotions that anyone who encounters China (whether as an insider or an outsider) must eventually deal with. As Westerners, we are too easily stuck in a “black and white,” “either-or” thought process when it comes to China. Is China about to become a superpower or implode? Are the Chinese people freer or less free? Is democracy possible, or are they destined to live under authoritarian rule? This book helps us see that the answer to those questions is the quintessential Chinese one: “perhaps.”

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang

Since China’s economic boom of the past 30 years has been built on manufacturing for export, Chinese migrant workers have become indispensable to the global economy; they work in the factories that make our stuff—-almost all of it. This book by former Wall Street Journal correspondent Leslie Chang helps us move beyond the recent spate of headlines and stories about these factories to meet some of the people who actually work in them. Chang spent several years getting to know three young women who “went out”—-left their villages where there was, literally, nothing to do—-and joined the great migration of Chinese people moving from the countryside to the cities. She follows their adjustment to life and work in the factories, where dormitories are crowded and the work days are long and tedious. Through their letters and text messages, we also learn of their aspirations and fears as they are transformed from country girls into city girls. They all want to be boss of their own company and find good husbands; and they all fear having to return to the countryside to marry.

China has more than 130 million migrant workers who have done the grunt-work of China’s rise. They have staffed the factories to manufacture the world’s consumer products. They have built the skyscrapers and infrastructure of China’s gleaming cities. They do the myriad urban jobs that urbanites will not do. They send their money back to the villages to support their families, lifting many out of poverty. As the debate in the West rages about China’s factories and the lives of migrant workers, it is worth remembering that “money sent home by migrants is already the biggest source of wealth accumulation in rural China” (p. 13).

That statement does not, of course, settle the debate, but perhaps reminds us that the issue is much more complex than we think. In Factory Girls, we get a glimpse of the issue as it affects individual lives—-lives of people, who are, despite cultural and economic differences, just like you and me—-filled with anxiety and hope for a better future.

God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China by Liao Yiwu

Chinese writer Liao Yiwu’s first encounter with Christianity was in 1998 in Beijing when he met two young men who were active in an urban house church. Inspired by the courage of these believers, he decided to learn more about Christianity in China. Since he had come of age under the Maoist education system, his notions of Christianity were decidedly negative. Sensing the gap between what he had seen in the church in Beijing and what he had been taught, he set out for Yunnan and Sichuan in search of Christians to interview.

In the introduction to the book, the translator describes what Liao found: “In those ethnic enclaves, impoverished by isolation and largely neglected by modernization Liao stumbled upon a vibrant Christian community that had sprung from the work of Western missionaries in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies” (p.x).

More broadly the book is (again, as the translator notes), an exploration of “the broader issue of spirituality in China in the post-Mao era, when the widespread loss of faith in Communism, as well as rampant corruption and greed resulting from the country’s relentless push for modernization have created a faith crisis” (p. xii). As with everything else about China, the picture that emerges is complex: there are stories of persecution and perseverance (especially during the political campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s), and there are stories of urban believers practicing their faith openly and wrestling with issues of social and political engagement.

In an email to friends Liao spells out why he wrote the book: “I have the responsibility to help the world understand the true spirit of China, which will outlast the current totalitarian government” (p. xiv). In one sense this book is that story. In another sense, it is much more, even though as a non-believer he does not (yet) realize it. It is the story of the power of the gospel to change hearts. It is the story of sustaining grace. It is the story of revival. It is the story of China being filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

See Matt Smethurst’s recent interview with Liao here.

Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and the World by David Aikman

Until Jesus in Beijing was published in 2003, most books about the church in China focused on the persecution stories of the 1960s and 1970s. In this book, David Aikman (former Beijing bureau chief for Time) moves beyond the persecution narratives to tell the story of the explosive growth of the church in China.

In the first section, Aikman lays out a comprehensive yet easy-to-read history of Christianity in China, dating back to the arrival of the Nestorians in the Tang Dynasty capital of Chang’an (modern day Xi’an). It’s a story of doors that opened and closed to the gospel, depending on the shifting political winds. In 1949, the door closed again, for what many assumed would be the last time. However, this closing did not mark the end of Christianity in China; rather it set the stage for its growth through suffering. Furthermore, with the foreigners gone, the church became indigenous. His historical overview of the history of Christianity in China is one of the most concise and helpful presentations I’ve read, especially for those who know little about the history of the Church in China.

Aikman introduces us to the varied faces of the church in China—-the rural house church networks that represent millions of believers in the countryside; the state-sanctioned Three-Self Churches (primarily in the cities), which operate like state-owned enterprises but where the gospel is still frequently preached; and the growing urban house church movement, made up of China’s growing (and highly educated) middle class. He tries to spell out the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges that each of these three churches face, and where foreign involvement is helpful or unhelpful.

If you know little about Christianity in China, this book is an excellent place to start. For a more comprehensive recommended reading list on China, please see “Literary Journey: The List”.

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