Peering into a fiery furnace

BEIJING—Inside a sleek steel building in an artist community on the outskirts of Beijing, editors, producers, and videographers gather for a brainstorming meeting in their heavy snow jackets and boots. The temperature is in the teens outside. Dirty snow and slush cover the parking lot, but the landlord has turned off central heating to save money, meaning the staff of 7g.tv, a Chinese Christian video production company, must plan the week’s upcoming short videos in the cold.

“7g” sounds like the word “miracle” in Chinese—and the site’s quantity of slickly produced testimonies, Christian music videos, Bible study guides, and other creative, gospel-oriented short films and shows seems semi-miraculous, given the dearth of widespread Christian resources a few years ago. 7g.tv’s most-watched video—with more than 211,000 views—details how a young man addicted to porn and a young woman jaded about marriage both end up finding true love in Jesus and then in each other. With a growing number of Christian media companies, a tap on the touch screen can bring up a Christian cooking show, a soap opera review from a Christian perspective, or an in-depth article on the similarities between Calvinism and Arminianism.

Even sermons from popular house church pastors—some biblically sound, some not—pass by censors unscathed. 7g’s founder, Anne Li (name changed for her protection), says the productions provide “Chinese Christians the tools they need to evangelize,” and videos on the lack of charitable giving or the stigma surrounding mental illness challenge believers. For a spiritually starving society and a still-budding church, the manifold resources available online, especially through the social media platform WeChat, are invaluable.

Like most things in China, while some areas of life for Christians improve, others regress: Overall press freedom is dwindling, and Christian bookstores and publications face greater restrictions with each new government decree. Once discussions stray toward more sensitive topics like government policies or the crackdown on churches, government censors are quick to act. The questions left unanswered: Where will Chinese Christians find serious Christian writing on political and social issues? Will Chinese media companies risk being shut down?

CHRISTIAN JOURNALISM IS NOTHING NEW IN CHINA. British Protestant missionary Robert Morrison started China’s first modern periodical, the Chinese Monthly Magazine, in 1815. Articles on Christianity made up about 85 percent of the magazine, with the rest covering technology, history, poetry, and current events. Although the publication only lasted six years, other missionaries followed suit, starting Chinese-language magazines and newspapers that slowly shifted toward a stronger news focus.

The most influential Christian publication was A Review of the Times by American missionary Young John Allen, which ran from 1868 to 1907 and sold up to 50,000 copies each week. With a focus on Western ideas of economics, politics, international relations, and religious freedom, the publication had a large impact on the leading reformers in the late Qing dynasty. Missionaries also contributed to printing press technologies, and after the Chinese empire fell in 1911, more and more Chinese started their own publications. Yet once the Communist Party took over in 1949, only state-run publications remained.

After China finally ended its global isolation in the late 1970s, overseas Chinese were eager to evangelize their brethren through their common language and history. Two of the larger magazines still influential today are Christian Life Quarterly and Overseas Campus Magazine (OC), based in Illinois and California respectively. They focus on reaching Chinese intellectuals in China and around the world.

Rev. Edwin Su started OC in 1992 after an influx of Chinese students, disillusioned from witnessing the Tiananmen Square massacre, showed up to study at U.S. colleges. At the time, immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong filled most U.S. Chinese churches, and many couldn’t relate to these students’ experiences. So Su began publishing an evangelistic magazine written by mainland Chinese Christians that resonated with the students. Many of these original readers went on to head influential churches and ministries.

Gideon Cheng, who now heads OC’s evangelism ministry, said the magazine made a big impact on him when he came to study at the University of Alabama soon after the Chinese government killed hundreds, or thousands, at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989: “I left China with a broken heart. … We were lost, our political zeal was put out by cold water.” Much of what he read in OC was “totally new and totally strange” to him: For instance, Cheng had been taught that “love without reason” did not exist, yet the Christian God loves without ulterior motives.

As Cheng experienced this love from Christians he met from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and America, Cheng professed faith in Christ. He worked in the chemical industry by day and spent his free time writing apologetics on his website and occasionally freelancing for OC. In 2011, Cheng joined OC full time to work on its internet ministry, eager to reach a new generation of Chinese youth. When he first started writing on apologetics, the seekers’ main questions revolved around how to reconcile science and faith, but today their main concern is figuring out the purpose of their lives.

As many of OC’s readers returned to work and live in China, OC also shifted its focus toward reaching intellectuals in the mainland.

BESIDES THE OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED church’s magazine, Tianfeng, house churches and mainland Christian writers also started their own magazines, yet many struggled to survive amid an adverse environment. Chu Yanqing, a Christian writer who worked in the publishing industry, has watched Christian magazines start, grow in influence, then ultimately shut down from financial or government pressure. He’s also experienced it firsthand: His magazine, Reform, which focused on the relationship between Christianity and politics, ran for two years until he ran out of money.

At a quiet Pizza Hut in Beijing, the 52-year-old peered through thin black-framed glasses to write in sprawling Chinese handwriting the 10 Christian magazines known within the house church community in China. Three are published in America—OC, Behold (which is OC’s magazine for believers), and Christian Life Quarterly. Of the seven produced inside China, most are no longer running. Next to some of the magazine titles, Chu noted the number of issues the magazines published before their demise—15, 16, 5. Those that survive circulate largely within house churches—which in China could mean apartments, offices, or warehouses—and are not more widely distributed.

Shouwang church in Beijing published the magazine Plum Blossom until the government cracked down on the house church in 2011, kicking it out of rented meeting space and arresting its leaders as they continued meeting outside. Another magazine saw its founder, dissident Yu Jie, immigrating to the United States after a year under house arrest in China. A third is under government investigation.

Others lack the money to continue printing: Chinese Christian publications face the typical financial challenges inherent in running a magazine, plus they are unregistered, risk being shut down, and lack donors. Chinese churches don’t have a culture of giving—most churches don’t give money to their own evangelists, much less Christian media. “This has to be your mission, it has to be God placing this calling in your heart,” Chu stressed, but the challenges often seem overwhelming.

THE TRANSITION FROM TRADITIONAL PRINT MEDIA to digital media has helped some types of Christian publications flourish. Today, starting an e-magazine is as easy as registering for a WeChat public account. WeChat is a one-stop app that combines a messaging service, a Facebook-like news feed, a customizable RSS feed, an e-wallet to make purchases, and much more. Look over the shoulder of any commuter on the subways of Beijing: More often than not, you’ll see the green and white text bubbles of WeChat or articles and videos embedded in the app. WeChat, which Chinese people consider less censored than China’s Twitter-like platform, Weibo, boasts 650 million active users, and a total of 1.1 billion registered accounts.

With Chinese people spending more time on WeChat than on websites, publications have started creating pages and content directly on their WeChat accounts, which is then sent out to all of their subscribers. 7g.tv sends out one new video each day, along with a short article and often questions for viewers to ponder and discuss. On OC’s WeChat account, the articles that once graced the print magazine are now sent out daily, along with special features like a podcast by Cheng that reflects on topics debated in America, such as “Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?”

As Christian WeChat accounts have multiplied, some have pushed the prosperity gospel or other false doctrines. Devotionals, testimonies, and lifestyle pieces dominate the channels, with theological pieces also represented: That’s good, since biblical teaching is much needed; but writers know that if they hit sensitive keywords their sites will be blocked. For instance, Christian journalists told me that mention of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and Wenzhou’s cross demolition caused censors to temporarily block access to the sites. 7g.tv had trouble uploading one video that included footage of the 21 Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS in February and one of the martyr’s brothers forgiving the attackers. Censors also pulled videos featuring Christian economist Zhao Xiao, who argues that greater Christian influence would benefit the Chinese economy.

“We don’t want to self-censor too much,” Cheng said. “If you write about theology or the gospel, it’s very unlikely it will be blocked,” and after navigating the internet for 20 years he has a sense of what will be disallowed. Like a player in the game Taboo, Christian sites need to get the message out while avoiding sensitive words that will catch the attention of censors.

NAVIGATING THE MINEFIELD of the Chinese internet landscape is increasingly difficult as President Xi Jinping tightens his grip on all aspects of life in China. In 2015, the government gagged the few publications involved in investigative journalism and arrested writers who crossed the line. Dissent is no longer accepted inside or outside the Party: In recent months, the government sacked the editor in chief of a Xinjiang newspaper, the head of the English department at a university in Zhanjiang, and a deputy police chief for making comments critical of government policies.

Christians also had a difficult year: Government officials combed through Christian bookstores, discarding material that they oppose. Registering an ISBN number for Christian books has become more difficult, and some Christian printers have been shut down. Church members in Wenzhou sang praise songs outside their church buildings as police in riot gear beat them aside to pry off the crosses on their buildings. Authorities whisked away Zhang Kai—a lawyer who represented Wenzhou pastors and often posted on WeChat information about the church’s legal rights or instances of cross removals—to a secret detention center and accused him of sharing state secrets with overseas contacts. Traditional media never reported most of this news, but a wide WeChat network comprised of church leaders and well-connected Christians passed it along.

Yet while China watchers shake their heads and sigh into cups of tea, many people from all professions are professing Christ: crusty police officers, free-spirited painters, shrewd businessmen, and journalists at government-run publications. On one below-freezing winter day, I sipped a cup of hot cocoa with a Christian journalist who currently works at a government-run economic newspaper. Between deadlines, she meets with other journalists in Beijing who have come to profess Christ. Together they read the Bible and pray, discussing how their faith could inform their writing.

The number of Christian journalists is growing in China, and observant readers can see traces of the faith even in this restrictive vocation. For instance, last February the state-run Global Times published a balanced article about Chinese house churches sending missionaries to the Muslim world, based on interviews with Chinese missionaries and house church leaders. The writer noted that “compared with other Asian countries like South Korea, India, and the Philippines, China lags behind on overseas missionary work.”

One journalist I spoke with said editors slash from her story anything that strays from the Chinese government’s narrative, so she’s started her own WeChat public account where she has the freedom to write about what she wants. One post on the effects of abortion on Chinese women includes a photo of a pin showing the size of an unborn baby’s feet at 10 weeks. “Have you seen how abortion dismembers the fetus?” she wrote. “Have you heard the anguished cries of a woman having an abortion? Can you still say that abortion is not murder?”

One of the most popular WeChat publications among thoughtful Christians is Territory, started by two former journalists who came to profess faith in Christ. Each day Territory posts one article, typically a long-form testimony or an in-depth look at current issues from a Christian perspective. Several days after the Paris bombing, Territory published reflections from a Christian Chinese woman living in Paris and from a Paris pastor of a congregant whose son was injured in the bombing. Because of their timeliness, the stories quickly amassed more than 26,000 views.

IN SPEAKING WITH THESE FELLOW CHRISTIAN MEDIA WORKERS, I found they were often curious to hear what WORLD does, and I’d tell them how we aim to cover the news—not just events inside the church—from a biblical perspective in order to reveal a fuller picture of what God is doing in the world. Over and over I’d hear similar responses: Chinese Christians lack quality, trustworthy news media. They see many pastors who don’t know how to connect the day’s headlines with what they read in the Bible. They hope for a Christian publication in China engaged in serious journalism.

‘This has to be your mission, it has to be God placing this calling in your heart.’ —Christian writer Chu Yanqing

Creating Christian newsmagazines requires money as well as Chinese Christians skilled at writing and editing, and bold enough to risk imprisonment. In spite of seemingly insurmountable challenges, former Reform editor Chu remains hopeful about the future as he watches a new batch of Christian leaders rise in China, such as Pastor Wang Yi in Chengdu. “Every generation has its responsibilities,” Chu said. “The older generation has taken their stand; now the new generation is not only persevering in the Christian faith, but bringing Christianity into society and influencing it.”

Back at the chilly 7g.tv office, the new generation focuses on seeking inspiring testimonies, filming talk shows on motherhood against a green screen in the studio, and brainstorming music video ideas with unsigned Christian artists. This is all valuable work, but Chu notes that besides his short-lived magazine, few of the other Christian publications dare cover political topics. That leaves Christians without a voice on important issues facing Chinese society today. “I think the biggest issue facing house churches is government interference and the lack of religious freedom,” Chu said. “Right now a lot of house churches … openly say they don’t want to participate or get involved in politics. But even so, the government will get involved in the churches. They will come find you.”

An independent press?

The life of a Christian journalist in China is not easy. The Maoist regime demanded total obedience. Some opportunities emerged in recent decades, but the past several years have brought a new crackdown. A History of Journalism in China, volume 1, edited by Fang Hanqi (Silkroad Press, 2013) shows that freedom has been rare throughout Chinese history.

China had news written on bones or rocks more than 2,000 years ago: King Xuan’s death in 782 B.C., the murder of Wang Hai, the political successes of Qin Shi Huang in 219 B.C. The earliest newspaper in world history, the Kaiyuan Gazette, appeared between A.D. 713 and 742. Others during the Tang and Song dynasties (A.D. 618-1279) also presented only good news from the imperial standpoint: Nothing about mutinies and peasant uprisings. Floods, droughts, and locust plagues also went unreported because these signs of heaven’s disappointment could weaken the emperor.

During the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644) every Chinese province had a provincial courier officer whose task was to transmit military news and distribute imperial gazettes and notices that contained edicts, news of appointments, imperial examination results, punishments and imprisonments, and attempts to fight corruption such as the “Ban on Acceptance of Advantages,” the “Ban on Fixed Rice Price,” and the “Ban on Revenge.”

Freedom of the press? No: Penalties were severe for “giving inappropriate comments on current affairs, writing misleading books, spreading fallacies,” and passing along any information the emperor deemed secret. The emperor’s office could publish notices on big sheets of yellow paper, but all others had to use a lesser size of white paper. When peasants rebelled, they could not afford to produce newspapers; but they reported on wooden boards and bamboo pieces war news and political declarations. During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), China’s last, a literary inquisition sometimes sentenced to death those who referred negatively to rulers.

Listen to June Cheng discuss her cover story on The World and Everything in It.