送交者: Europeanese 于 2005-2-07, 16:58:29:
The Han Chinese
Ethnicity
The Han people are the majority people group in the PeopleÕs Republic of China and Taiwan. Comprising 91% of the population of Mainland China and all overseas peoples who call themselves ÒChinese,Ó the Han are the largest people group in the world. They are one of the 56 official nationalities of China.
Language
Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua) is the official language of the People's Republic of China. Estimates range from 780-1000 million people who speak Mandarin as their mother tongue, but all education after the third year is conducted in Mandarin, so other Han Chinese and minority groups in China learn to speak Mandarin in school. Linguists estimate there are up to 2 billion speakers of Mandarin worldwide. The Bejing dialect of Mandarin is considered the standard for spoken Mandarin and is used for media and education in China. There is remarkable uniformity among Mandarin speakers no matter where they live. There are estimated to be 600 Han dialects besides Mandarin, but one written language is common to all. Some of the better known and more widely spoken dialects include Cantonese, Hakka (Hokkien) and Fukienese.
Location
The Han live in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau with large concentrations also in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, United States and additional communities scattered throughout the world today. Mandarin-speaking Chinese are found all over China but are mainly in the northern and eastern provinces.
Religion
Traditionally, Han people practice a blend of Confucianism, Taois, Buddhism and ancestor worship, which group together are called Chinese religions. The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 establishing communist rule in Mainland China. Elimination of all religious groups was an aim of the new government. Today, about half of Mainland Han are non-religious, and roughly 25 to 30 percent practice Chinese religions. In Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Han populations most practice Chinese religions or Chistianity. Many of the Christians in Indonesia are ethnically Han.
Christianity
Nestorian Christians entered China as early as 505AD, though oral traditions have it that the Apostle Thomas visited China before he was martyred and buried in India. During the Tang Dynasty, the Nestorian bishop Alopen arrived in China. His teaching was found by the Chinese emperor to be Òhelpful to all creatures and beneficial to all menÓ and was allowed to be preached throughout the country. However, many of the Nestorian church leaders were of Turkic ethnicity which later worked against the Nestorians leaving a lasting imprint on China.
Circa 1275, Kublai Khan sent letters via the Polo brothers to the Pope in Rome asking for 100 teachers of science and religion, "wise in the Christian law and acquainted with the seven arts." Few answered the call and even fewer even attempted the journey. Shortly before Kublai Khan died, the first Roman Catholic missionary, a lone Franciscan monk, arrived in China in 1294. Less than 100 years later, under the Ming emperors, Christianity again almost disappeared from China.
Not much else is heard about the church in China until Matteo Ricci of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit) arrived in China in 1583. He focused on reaching the nobility and scholars of China. His influence was so respected that at his death the emperor made him an honorary citizen of China. By his death, there were 400 converts. Within fifty years, there were 150,000.
The first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison of the London Missionary Society, arrived in 1807. Previously, portions of the Bible had been translated into Chinese, but Morrison begana to systematically translate and publish the scriptures into Chinese. In 1842 the Treaty of Nanjing ended the first Opium War and opened China up to foreign interests including missionary activity. This began China's open century. By 1869 there were more than 400 missionaries in China from 30 different denominations. In 1926 there were more than 8,000 missionaries residing in China. China's open century ended abruptly on October 1, 1949 when the communists came to power. By the time the last foreign missionary was expelled in 1953, there were more than 750,000 Chinese Protestants across the nation.
Since that time, China has experienced one of the greatest revivals in church history, with some eastern provinces experiencing continual growth for more than 30 years. Operation World 2001 estimates that 7% of the population practices Christianity. Yet persecution exists and is fierce in parts of China. Several translations of the Bible exist today including the Union translation and the Good News Version. The Jesus film, gospel recordings and Christian broadcasting are available in Mandarin. Despite these great developments, hundreds of millions of Han Chinese have yet to hear the gospel.
OMF Involvement
OMF began in 1865 as the China Inland Mission. J. Hudson Taylor first went to China in 1853, and began his ministry to the Han at that time. The last CIM missionary left China in 1953, and CIM/OMF expanded its ministry throughout East Asia, first to Chinese communities outside of Mainland China, then to all the people groups of East Asia. Today OMF is still working among the Han Chinese populations in China, Asia and the West.