China is an old civilization going back thousands of years. It has been formed by many military struggles. As armies from other countries invaded China they brought change and soldiers were left behind who married Chinese woman forming a new group of people. Over the centuries a struggle to define China continued to bring together and forming many people groups who are now contained within the boundaries called China. Unlike America these people groups did not come together by choice to enjoy opportunities and freedom in China, they simply found themselves there with demands to conform to will of the ruling power.
Today China is a land about the size of mainland US and contains approximately 1.3 billion people with a dispersion of more than 100 million ethnic minorities. Even though they are a small percentage of the Chinese population they are found to inhabit nearly 63% of its territory where living conditions tend to be somewhat difficult. Because of cultural differences many of these ethnic minorities experience a certain amount of persecution from the hands of those in power.
A book titled “Operation China” by Paul Hattaway, introduces the reader to these hidden minority people and is shown in the picture below. In the book the author identifies and profiles 490 distinct ethno linguistic people groups. The book presents a reading schedule that if followed allows the reader to cover all of these groups in a one year period. I chose that assignment for 2007 and found it to be extremely informative and interesting and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the colorful cultural side of China.
Opportunity and freedom drew people groups together in America, but that is not the case in China. Many of these groups have physically isolated themselves and established a defense for their protection and because of language differences have further isolated themselves from the majority of Chinese people. This presents a real challenge for outsiders who would like to make contact with these people and help them meet their needs. If it is true that God created different languages for a particular purpose then in so doing he also created a barrier in making himself known to minority language groups. As a result considerable effort is being made by groups like Wycliffe to translate the Bible into as many different languages as possible. As I spend time in China and learn about these eastern religions I am challenged by the question I often hear about whether it is my responsibility to be concerned about their knowledge of the God I know, love and embrace.
