Operation China

by Tony Lambert

This book is the China publishing sensation of the decade! Paul Hattaway’s Operation China — Introducing all the Peoples of China is a tour de force. This lavishly illustrated book (there are 704 full-color photographs) deals with no less than 490 different people groups in China. It is based on more than ten years’ careful research, using a large number of Chinese publications on the minorities as well as the author’s own extensive trips into tribal areas in China.

Some of our readers may say: “I thought there were only 55 different minorities in China?” This is the classification system adopted by the Chinese government, but Hattaway successfully demonstrates that many of the “national minorities” include large numbers of separate sub-groups who differ widely in language and culture from each other. For instance, he sub-divides the “Miao” grouping into 43 recognizable groupings (Horned Miao, Flowery Miao, Hmong Daw, etc.). He finds no less than 117 different tribal groupings under the “Yi” heading!

The book is also notable for presenting 33 different people groups usually lumped together under the majority “Han Chinese” umbrella. Because of stress on national unification it is often overlooked that there are huge linguistic and cultural differences between, for instance, the Hainanese and the Hakka in the south, and the Wu (Shanghainese) in the east. As this point is vital for effective evangelism among Han Chinese, we give Hattaway’s listing of the ten major Han people groups:

Han Chinese, Mandarin-speaking - 783,000,000

Han Chinese, Wu (Shanghai, Zhejiang) - 82,000,000

Han Chinese, Cantonese - 59,000,000

Han Chinese, Jin (Shanxi, Hebei, Shaanxi) - 53,000,000

Han Chinese, Gan (Jiangxi) - 37,000,000

Han Chinese, Xiang (Hunan) - 36,000,000

Han Chinese, Minnan (Southern Fujian) - 32,000,000

Hakka (Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi) - 31,000,000

Han Chinese, Mindong (N.E. Fujian) - 9,000,000

Han Chinese, Hainanese - 5,000,000

Even these classifications can be further sub-divided, especially in the case of the majority northern Mandarin speakers whose nearly 400 million people are by no means a monolithic grouping.

Mandarin has been the national language for half a century and is taught in all the schools, thus inadvertently aiding the work of evangelization. However, huge numbers of Han Chinese daily speak as their heart-language “dialects” such as Hakka and Cantonese which are incomprehensible to a Mandarin speaker from Beijing. While every overseas Christian living in China should learn Mandarin, perhaps more emphasis should also be laid on their acquiring a good working knowledge of the local “dialect.”

This book is beautifully produced and easy to use for reference. Each people group (listed in alphabetic order) is given a page which contains a map showing their location in China, their population, their ethnic identity and language, their history and customs, their religion and the extent of their evangelization (if any).

Such a mine of information is not something to be read through in one sitting. Rather, it is a unique resource for mission agencies, churches and Christians involved in outreach to China’s minority peoples. Above all, it will provide reliable information unavailable elsewhere for concerted and focused prayer for each of these minority peoples. Most are without any Christian witness.

Operation China – Introducing all the peoples of China by Paul Hattaway, Piquant (William Carey Library), 706 pages, paperback.

STEPPE BY STEPPE — Mongolia’s Christians. Hugh Kemp. Monarch Books & OMF, 2000.

In 1990, when Mongolia emerged from Stalinist tyranny, there was a sudden rush of Western Christian organizations to evangelism. Some thought they were bringing Christianity to the Mongols for the very first time. Hugh Kemp’s thoroughly researched and readable book shows that, in fact, Christian mission to the Mongol people began over 1,300 years ago with the Nestorian church which spread across the Silk Road.

In the 12th-13th centuries, when the Mongols controlled the greatest empire ever known to mankind, several leading figures actually became Christians. Kemp deals with this fascinating and largely unknown period of Christian mission as well as the medieval Roman Catholic efforts which culminated in John of Montecorvino building churches in Beijing, the Mongol capital.

The first Protestant missionaries (as in so many cases) were the Moravians in the 18th century. The London Missionary Society did sterling work in the 19th century, of whom the best known missionary was James Gilmour. In the 20th century the female trio of Francesca and Evangeline French and Mildred Cable crossed the Gobi on camels and “gossiped the gospel” wherever they went.

It should be pointed out that today the majority of Mongols live not in independent Mongolia but in Inner Mongolia which is very much part of China. Inner Mongolia is today overshadowed by the opportunities presented in Mongolia itself. However readers of this book will find plenty of fascinating information to focus their prayer on the spiritual needs of the Mongols within China. Chapters 1-3 deal with Nestorian Christianity in China. Chapters 5-10 cover the century when the Mongols took over China (founding the Yuan dynasty) and ruled most of the known world. Chapter 21 tells of King George of the Onguts, a Mongol tribe inhabiting the great bend of the Yellow River, who became a Christian and may have been the reason for the Prester John legend. Many of the later chapters of the book deal with early Protestant mission work in what is now Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, including the work by George Hunter and the Swedish Mongol Mission.

This book of over 500 pages is likely to remain the most authoritative book on Christian mission to the Mongols for years to come. It should be on the bookshelf of every Christian interested in, and praying for, China and the Mongols.

MUSLIM MONGOLS!

Most Mongols are traditional believers in Lama Buddhism which was brought to them from Tibet. However, the Alxa (Alashan) Mongols are an exception — they follow Islam. This cuts them off from intermarriage with other Mongols and makes them a distinct people.

The Alxa Mongols number 21,000 and live in western Inner Mongolia. They are surrounded on three sides by desert. They rely on camels for survival. Due to a horrific child mortality rate in the past, the Alza Mongols do not celebrate a child’s birth until it is three years old. They converted to Islam centuries ago and were discriminated against by other Mongols. There are no known Christians among them. Because of their social and religious isolation they will probably be one of the most difficult people groups to reach with the gospel in the whole of China. (From p.364 of Operation China)

Copyright OMF International