[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_KAhH2LAKY?rel=0&controls=0&w=560&h=315]
Transcript Of Al Jazeera Video:
Adrian Brown of Al Jazeera: There was once a time when China's Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung's little red book was the only bestseller here [in China] but now there's another one and it's been around a lot longer. More than a hundred and thirty million copies of the Bible have rolled off this production line, thirteen million last year alone—many exported but the majority were for the domestic market, purchased for churches sanctioned by China's atheist government.
Qui Zhonghui (Amity Bible Printing Chairman): first principle is, serve our churches, serve our brothers and sisters [in China], then if we still have the capacity we will serve their overseas churches.
Adrian Brown of Al Jazeera: The factory publishes Bibles in 90 languages from Arabic to Russian. Such is demand for the holy book, [that] it [printing the bibles] remains around the clock operation. According to official figures, around 30 million people are Christian. Unofficially, it's a hundred million. That's more members than the Communist Party has. And while religion is tolerated, the government is wary of its growing popularity, a popularity reflected here [in the factory]. The factory began publishing Bibles in 1987, just a few years before the Communist Party ended, its campaign to try to wipe out religion. Today, it's proof that there is money in religion, a contradiction that is perhaps only possible in today's China. And in today's China, more people are seeking meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Qui Zhonghui (Amity Bible Printing Chairman): The material is not enough before because we are human beings not animals. So when we have in our kettle enough food, we're always thinking, what's the value of life?
Adrian Brown of Al Jazeera: He (Qui Zhonghui) believes that 20 years from now, there could be up to a hundred and sixty million Chinese Christians and of course they'll all need a Bible made here.
Adrian Brown Al Jazeera, Nanjing
Refer to the following blogs to understand the China Christianity phenomenon:
- TLS 20 Leadership and Values 6 – China 3
- TLS 19 Leadership and Values 5 – China 2
- TLS 18 Leadership and Values 4 – China 1
