Chinese and the Church

I recently finished reading this new book by Gale Sears. It is a Historical Novel based in Hong Kong around the time of Mao ZeDong‘s death in 1976. Some of the character in the story are very real people while some are complete fiction.

I rather enjoyed the plot. I found the story be quite wonderful and very believable. The main character Wen-shan’s is one of discovery as she learns more about her past and mother she can’t remember.

I found the details of life in Hong Kong to be written very well. The food, the landscape, the culture all seemed to be portrayed correctly. The parts of the book that seemed a bit difficult are the notes written and the end of each chapter. Some notes precede the mention in the story and some come after. The emotion of the author toward Communism is made well know by the comments she chooses to make in the notes. It is obvious the author has done much research on China and the LDS church, but I believe it to be difficult to describe a time such as the cultural revolution without having lived through it. In talking with friends that lived in China during that time I got a sense of mixed emotion, a sense of pride in their country yet remorse for such difficult times.

I loved reading a work of fiction that included two of my favorite topics,, the LDS Church and China. The parts in the book relating to the church were very well placed and did not overpower the storyline.  I was glas to see the author was able to spend time with H. Grant Heaton and his wife before he passed away. Overall I enjoyed reading the book and I am happy to see such a rare occurrence of published material about China and the LDS Church.

H. Grant Heaton

H. Grant Heaton Passed away this last week. He was the one of the first missionaries to Hong Kong in the early 1950′s and the first Mission President in the Chinese Realm for the Southern Far East Mission. He will be missed by many.

http://www.mission.net/taiwan/taipei/news.php?nID=5810

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=h-grant-heaton&pid=154748314

Here is a link a Deseret News article for when he was called as a Mission President in 1955:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19550521&id=3-NSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lIADAAAAIBAJ&pg=4481,4598822

I came across this video series on YouTube. It is a history of Missionaries and the Church in Taiwan. It includes a great interview of Hu Wei-I 胡唯一。

I read an interesting article on CNN today. A famous Chinese blogger named Han Han who created magazine and tried to get it published, but had difficulty getting it through the government approval system. Article.

The writer mentions two interesting things that may be of interest to those wishing to see the gospel spread throughout china:

1. There are three different sets of “licenses and permits” needed to get anything published and distributed in China. This would make it difficult to get religious materials distributed. Plenty of places to for the material to rejected.
2. The blogger Han Han is stopping the production because he doesn’t see a chance for change until the current leadership changes in 2012. Change is always good.

With the letter from the “Elders” to the Chinese government a few weeks back and other loosening of restrictions I hope to see positive change in the coming years.

很好嗎？

I enjoyed seeing the new MormonAds every month growing up in the New Era. So I thought it would be fun to put up a few from the Chinese Liahona.

See all the thumbnails here. 摩門信息

Enjoy!

I found a little church pamphlet at a used book store called “You are called to Serve” 因此你被召喚去服務 printed in 1969.

The curious thing about it is that the scripture references inside refer to the Doctrine & Covenants as 聖教義和約言. A little different then we now know. Check it out:

Good things to come?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/13/101976/chinese-communist-party-elders.html

Here is the full text of the open letter sent my the “Chinese Elders”. In English and Chinese.
Interesting stuff.

http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/10/13/8035/

The Church is looking for anyone with language skills to help translate phrases and text for use with its new website. Currently they are only looking for Chinese, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish with more languages being added all the time.

They translation needs are simple phrases and text and each assignment is small and shouldn’t take too much time if you are comfortable translating into that language.

Here are the Links to get you started!

http://serve.lds.org/

Facebook Page

Google Doc Volunteer Application – Google Site

D&C 90:11

事情​將是​這樣，​在​那​天，​藉著​為​顯明​耶穌基督​而​傾注​於​他們​身上​的​​保惠師​的​施助，​每個人​將​透過​那​被​​按立​到此​​權力​的​人，​以​他​自己​的​方言​和​他​自己​的​語言​​聽到​圓滿​的​福音。

http://mormon.org/me/13K6-eng/John