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Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia (September 12, 2023, Pew Research)
  • In Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, Buddhists see strong links between their religion and country, as do Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia

  • Sat-09-2023
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From Dust to Lunch: Jordanian Christians Decry Cost of Funeral Feast (September 7, 2023, Christianity Today) (subscription required)
  • Tribal hospitality demands feeding the 500. But believers pinched by poverty call for cultural changes that still preserve honor.

  • Sun-09-2023
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As Mongolia Catholics Welcome Francis, Evangelicals Wrestle with Growing Pains (August 31, 2023, Christianity Today) (subscription required)
  • Today, while most Mongolians are either Buddhist or nonreligious, the Protestant church has grown to 63,600, making up two percent of the population, according to the World Christian Database. Catholics, on the other hand, have seen more meager growth with a community of less than 1,500 people.

  • Sun-09-2023
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Asia’s poor grew by 68 million people after pandemic, report says (August 24, 2023, Al Jazeera)
  • Nearly 70 million more people lived in extreme poverty in developing Asian countries last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising living costs, a Philippines-based development bank has said. More than 155 million people suffered from extreme poverty in developing Asia in 2022, 67.8 million more than if the pandemic had not occurred, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report released on Thursday.

  • Sun-08-2023
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21 churches, many homes ransacked in Faisalabad’s Jaranwala (Aug 20, 2023, Al Jazeera Media Network)
  • Armed mobs have attacked at least two churches in Punjab province’s Jaranwala town accusing two Christian residents of blasphemy. Hundreds of people armed with batons and sticks attack churches in Jaranwala after the holy Quran was allegedly desecrated.

  • Sun-08-2023
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Vatican and Vietnam agree to open resident Holy See office in Hanoi, as relations improve (July 28, 2023, Religion News)
  • Vietnam formally agreed Thursday to let a Vatican representative live in the country and open an office, a notching up of relations that could have implications down the line for the Holy See’s delicate ties with China. The Holy See announced the conclusion of the agreement during a visit to the Vatican by Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, who met with Pope Francis and the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

  • Sat-08-2023
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WeChat Pay now accepts foreign credit cards for payment in China (July 20, 2023, Technode)
  • Chinese tech giant Tencent said on Thursday that it now allows foreign tourists to link their international credit cards to its payment service WeChat Pay. With the rise of digital payments in China, foreign visitors have sometimes encountered difficulty in the country as many shops and restaurants only accept digital payments.

  • Mon-07-2023
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Singapore's passport dethrones Japan as world's most powerful (July 20, 2023, CBS News)
  • If you hold a Singaporean passport, you're in luck. The Southeast Asian country's citizenship document officially ranks as the most powerful in the world, according to the latest Henley Passport Index, which was published Tuesday. According to the index, Singaporeans can travel to 192 out of 227 travel destinations in the world without a visa.

  • Sat-07-2023
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Christians in Pakistan risk greater persecution from blasphemy laws, while living in poverty (July 5, 2023, Religion News Service)
  • Among Muslim-majority countries, Pakistan has the strictest blasphemy laws. People jailed under these laws risk a sentence of life in prison and worse still, even death. Christians and other religious minorities make up a mere 4% of Pakistan’s population, but they account for about half of blasphemy charges.

  • Sat-07-2023
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Education for Chinese Christian Families—Another Way (July 5, 2023, ChinaSource Blog)
  • Guardian visas for parents of young children studying abroad have opened another education opportunity for Christian families in China.

  • Mon-07-2023
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  • Sat-09-2023
Vatican allows married deacons for Philippine Church (September 14, 2023, UCA News)

The Vatican has approved a request from Philippine bishops to allow them to ordain qualified Catholics, including married men, as permanent deacons to help check the widening priest-catholic ratio in the country. Pope Francis granted the request of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines to establish a “permanent diaconate” within the local Church, according to a Vatican letter the conference received on Sept. 12.

  • Sat-09-2023
Do Christians Belong in Southeast Asia? Pew Polled Buddhists and Muslims (September 12, 2023, Christianity Today) (subscription required)

Among its neighbors, Singapore is a spiritual anomaly. Surrounded by deeply religious countries with overwhelming Muslim or Buddhist majorities, the island city-state is by some measures the world’s most religiously diverse society, with no single faith composing a majority.

  • Sat-09-2023
Malaysia penalises 400 companies so far this year for violating labour laws (September 15, 2023, Al Jazeera)

Malaysia has taken action against 400 companies so far this year for violating labour laws, state news agency Bernama has reported, citing Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar. The ministry’s labour department issued fines totalling 2.17 million ringgit ($463,000) against 272 employers, while the courts fined 128 employers a combined 242,000 ringgit ($51,700), Bernama cited Sivakumar as saying on Thursday.

  • Sat-09-2023
As the sea warms, struggling Cambodian fishermen seek to preserve crab stocks (September 15, 2023, Reuters)

The provinces of Kep and Kampot are famous among locals and foreign visitors for their delicious flower crabs but fishermen there are anxious about their small catches - a development that experts attribute to a warmer sea. According to data from the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, temperature spikes above normal have become increasingly common in oceans along Cambodia's coastline since 2010.

  • Sat-09-2023
India racing to contain deadly Nipah virus outbreak as hundreds are tested in Kerala state (September 14, 2023, Yahoo! News)

India racing to contain deadly Nipah virus outbreak as hundreds are tested in Kerala state (September 14, 2023, Yahoo! News) Health officials in India are racing Thursday to contain an outbreak of the Nipah virus, which has already killed two and carries a fatality rate the World Health Organization says is as high as 75%. Around 800 people have been tested over the last few days in the country’s southern Kerala state, with two adults and a child placed in a hospital after receiving a positive diagnosis, according to Reuters.

  • Sat-09-2023
Vietnam fire: 56 dead and dozens injured in Hanoi apartment blaze (September 13, 2023, BBC)

At least 56 people are known to have died and dozens were injured in a huge fire in an apartment block in Vietnam's capital Hanoi. Some 37 people were injured in the fire, police said, adding that 39 victims have been identified. The fire, which broke out during the night, has been extinguished. The owner of the building has been arrested.

  • Sat-09-2023
Fewer North Korean defectors reach South Korea, and questions grow about unification (September 15, 2023, NPR)

Nearly 3,000 defectors arrived in South Korea in 2009 and the annual number remained above 1,000 for more than a decade thereafter. But starting in 2021, it fell to double digits. Just 67 arrived last year.

  • Sat-09-2023
Afghan-Pakistan border crossing reopens after talks to settle clashes (September 15, 2023, Reuters)

The main land crossing on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan re-opened on Friday after a closure of nine days following shooting between guards on both sides, a senior Pakistani official told Reuters. Thousands of travellers and hundreds of trucks laden with goods were stranded last week by the closure of the Torkham border crossing, at the western end of the fabled Khyber Pass.

  • Sat-09-2023
Thailand's Pita quits as leader of election-winning party after failed PM bid (September 15, 2023, Reuters)

Thailand's Pita Limjaroenrat resigned on Friday as leader of the progressive Move Forward party, months after delivering a stunning electoral victory on an anti-establishment reform agenda that threatened to upend the political status quo.

  • Sun-09-2023
Gen X Dropouts Widen the Generational Divide among Singapore Christians (August 31, 2023, Christianity Today) (subscription required)

Interviews with 63 churches reveal an urgent need for greater mutuality in relationships.

  • Sat-09-2023
How Many Christians Are There in China? It’s Complicated (September 15, 2023, ChinaSource Blog)

If you are looking for a tidy answer to the question of how many Christians there are in China… then you will be disappointed. That’s because this is the first time Pew has (sort of) come out and admitted that they don’t really know and that it’s almost impossible to really know.

  • Sat-09-2023
Bearing With: Recognizing and Accepting Differences (September 11, 2023, ChinaSource Blog)

When Wang Fang began recognizing and accepting the differences between her and her older, male, Christian colleague with whom she was at odds, she became willing to reconcile with him.

  • Sat-09-2023
How the Grand Canyon of China Became a Christian Land (September 7, 2023, Christianity Today) (subscription required)

In the remote mountains and ancient forests of China’s Nujiang Grand Canyon, near the Myanmar and Tibet borders in Yunnan province, live the Lisu people (傈僳族). One of the country’s 55 ethnic minorities, the community of about 900,000 is majority (80%) Christian, and the faith has been present among the people for over a century. The history of the sowing, germination, flowering, and fruiting of the gospel among the Lisu and the development of their written language trace back to the 1910s, with a missionary from England named James Outram Fraser.

  • Sat-09-2023
Confronting Confucian Understandings of the Christian Doctrine of Salvation - Book Review (Revisited) (August 25, 2023, Global China Center)

Confronting Confucian Understandings of the Christian Doctrine of Salvation will now be required reading for anyone seeking to understand why Chinese intellectuals have accepted, rejected, or modified the Christian message since the time of Matteo Ricci. Paulos Huang has given us a fine, clearly-organized study with a great deal of thought-provoking findings and suggestions.

  • Sat-09-2023
On the China-Laos Border, a Cautionary Tale of Hot Money and Wild Dreams (September 13, 2023, Sixth Tone)

Chinese investors have poured money into the small Lao town of Boten, believing a new railway would bring massive growth. But the hoped-for boom has yet to arrive.

  • Sat-09-2023
China can’t just rely on boosting births to address aging population issues, Renmin University professor says (September 13, 2023, CNBC)

China can’t just rely on increasing childbirths to address its aging population issues, said Du Peng, vice principal of Renmin University of China. The number of people who are aged 60 and above will roughly double to more than 500 million in the year 2050, he told reporters during a talk on Wednesday. He said policymakers can take action today: by raising the retirement age, improving insurance coverage and increasing retirees’ social participation, among other measures.

  • Sat-09-2023
China agrees to rare visit by Vatican envoy for Ukraine talks (September 13, 2023, Reuters)

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Vatican envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi will visit China for talks on resolving the conflict in Ukraine, despite the lack of formal bilateral relations between Beijing and the Holy See. Li Hui, China's Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs, will meet with Zuppi, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular news conference.

  • Sun-09-2023
Chinese Communist Party promotes atheism, but many members still partake in religious customs (September 5, 2023, Pew Research)

Some 6% of CCP members formally identify with a religion such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam or Taoism. This is nearly on par with the 10% of Chinese adults who are not party members, according to the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) – one of several academic surveys examined in the Center’s new analysis.

  • Sun-09-2023
A Sacred Space (September 4, 2023, ChinaSource Blog)

Spiritual companionship, an ancient practice involving deep listening and discerning the movement of the Spirit in a sacred space, is not only a way to examine a life that is worth living, but also a life reflecting the glory of God as the image bearer. In essence, it is a crucial path for Christian discipleship and spiritual formation.

  • Sun-09-2023
神学词汇—A Tool for Translators (September 1, 2023, ChinaSource Blog)

A theological student I knew years ago was confused as to why the lives of 俄利根 and 奥利金, seemingly two different individuals, seemed so similar. Of course, it turned out that these were two different Chinese names for the same church father—Origen of Alexandria. This is just one example of why I got involved in developing Shenxuecihui.com—a tool to help standardize Chinese translations of theological terms and names.