Operation China: Introducing All the People of China

I must begin by saying I am eternally grateful to Mr. Paul Hattaway. Operation China has been the best resource book on China's minorities that I have read. I bought it a couple of years ago and have not stopped reading it yet. Whenever I am feeling down or discouraged, I pick up my copy of Operation China and get encouraged and inspired once again. I must give God many thanks for Paul. We need more individuals with such committed hearts and a desire to see the Will of God accomplished in their lives like him.

This book is an eminently well-presented resource containing information on most, if not all, the races in China. Packed with verified statistics (references given), this is not simply a dry and boring text - there is at least one full colour photograph of each racial group along with a full page writeup of their culture, beliefs, location, language and ethnic history. At the front is an overview of China, Chinese (both the people and the language) and a background of the contents and methods used to collect it. This book is fascinating to me, a long-term student of Chinese, and a Christian in a Chinese Church. For days I flipped through it reading more and more interesting material - I couldn't put it down! One aspect jumped out at me, and that is the small graph on each page describing the proportion of people who had not heard the Gospel, the proportion who don't (yet) believe after hearing the Gospel, and the proportion of practicing Christians. What jumped out was the graph for the Lisu people. Whereas most graphs showed 80 to 90% had not heard the Gospel, and only 4 or 5% were practicing Chrisitans, the Lisu were different with over 40% being practicing Christians. Why? Whilst it is hinted at in the text, I'm convinced that this is mostly the result of one man giving up over 20 years of his life to work as missionary in Lisuland: James O Fraser. He laboured year in, year out, taking more than 5 years before seeing his first convert, until finally the Holy Spirit swept through those villages like a storm. So strong were the conversions that the Lisu, perhaps alone of all Chinese races, survived the Cultural Revolution with their church intact. This shows the difference that one soul can make to this world. Maybe this could be *you* in future?

Have you ever wondered why some races get so big while others are so small? Have you ever wondered why modern ethnic divisions so closely follow the boundaries of nation-states?Hattaway doesnt attempt to answer these questions directly. But this book is a cornucopia of the relevant raw data, as concerns the vast area we now know as China.Centuries of absorptive imperial policy have erased millenia of fascinating political, cultural, and genetic history in China's core regions. In most parts of China, practically everyone is raised to think of themselves as simply part of the "Chinese" ethnic, cultural, and political monolith.Modern continuations of those imperial policies regrettably ban almost all politically non-motivated research, meaning very little accurate information is available. But at the edges of the empire, where the digestive processes have only had a few centuries to work, there is still a lot of colorful variety to be observed. And thankfully, there are still-independent neighboring nations from which to document those observations.From a vantage point in nearby Thailand, where many of the same ethno-genetic blocs are represented, Hattaway has been able to glean enough information to weave together a remarkably extensive picture of the ethnic situation within China, primarily its South and Southwest.The resulting tapestry is a valuable collection of information for anyone, whether their interest is in global evangelism like the author, or in more secular perspectives: Human anthropology, Southeast Asian history, minority affairs come to mind--anything that involves the relationships between genetics, geography, politics, and culture.The real world is much more complicated than the two questions I started out with would imply. Ethnicity and geography are of course much richer things than simplistic abstractions like race and nation allow for. I heartily commend Hattaway's effort to document that particular part of this world.

If you have used Operation World to pray for peoples in the world, and you have a heart for the Chinese people -- you got to have Operation China! I am a Chinese from Taiwan, and honestly, I didn't know there are almost 500 people groups in China! This book introduces every people groups in China briefly. It talks about their location, identity, language, customs, religion, and Christianity influence and effort on each group. Best of all, I especially love the photo of each people group. Honestly, when I was just flipping through the pages and looking at those people's faces -- the book touches me so much and I was weeping... because I know that God had created them all and He loves them so much. But not many of them know who He is or even His existence. I was so humbled by God because of His greatness -- I'm a Chinese from Taiwan, but I'm only a small part of the 500 people groups who lives in China! This book helps me to understand the urgency of reaching those people groups and again shows me the heart of God -- as illustrated in Luke 15, that He would go for the 1 lost sheep and leave the 99 behind. God loves those minority in China as well... no matter how small a group they might be, they're still the 1 lost sheep to Him and He will go search for them until they are found. Praise God for the efforts that different people had put into this book!