On this day in 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereingty after being a British colony for 99 years. The negotiations for the handover and begun back in the 1980’s when Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiao-ping were in power in their respective nations. Those negotiations culminated in a lavish handover ceremony in Hong Kong on […]
May 35 Reading
Today is June 4, the 27th anniversary of the military assault on Tiananmen Square to clear it of student protesters. In China it is simply known as “Six Four” (the Chinese way of saying June 4), and it is such a sensitive anniversary that numbers 6 and 4 get censored on the internet. Never mind, though, […]
50 Years from the Cultural Revolution
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, a political campaign launched by Chairman Mao. The purpose was supposedly to give a new generation the experience of revolution; however, it was actually an outcome of a power struggle between Mao and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. During […]
Voices from the Past
In a world where we are bombarded daily by voices from our phones, TV’s, and radios, sometimes it’s good to put them all down and listen to some voices from the past. My friend Andrew Kaiser has just published an e-book that allows us to do just that. Voices from the Past: Historical Reflections on Christian Missions […]
Typing in Chinese
I am often asked how, given the fact that the Chinese language has no alphabet, one types in Chinese using a standard English qwerty keyboard. The answer, of course is that modern Chinese also uses a romanization system called Pinyin, which uses English letters to represent Chinese sounds. If you type a Pinyin word, a […]
China Under Mao
I recently stumbled across a great new blog called Everyday life in Mao’s China. Each post is a photo or photos taken in China when Chairman Mao was in power. They are very interesting glimpses of a China that is hard to imagine these days. Here are a couple of my favorites: St. Joseph’s Church in […]
