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8/31/2009 List of postings: June '09 to August '09 Here is an index of this quarter's postings (June '09 to August '09). Clicking on the titles will take you to that post.During this quarter the blog again clocked up over 11,000 page views - thanks everyone for reading! And this month it was especially encouraging to meet some readers from interstate - you know who you are! Last quarter I began a series of posts on the Chinese concept of face, and this quarter I cap off that series with one final post where we look at what we can do about 'face' in our ministry (July 30). There is also a short series where I apply Transactional Analysis (TA) to Chinese culture, with interesting results (June 5 and 22). Also significant was a post on the strange lack of forgiveness in Chinese culture (Aug 6), and the Chinese understanding of family (Jul 14). These would be extremely worthwhile to discuss with your ministry team! Earlier this month I also found a way to get more detailed stats out of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and have been posting some of my findings about the Australian Born Chinese and how we're going at reaching this group (August 19, 21, 23, 25 and 28). Watch out for a few more in this series next quarter! I also reorganised the categories of the articles a little. So now the 'Chinese culture' category should show most of the stuff in that area, and the 'Statistics' category should show all the statistical stuff I've produced. June 2009
5 Transactional analysis - and Chinese culture July 2009
August 2009
[ PS: during this period which were your favourite posts? which ones did you feel strongly about? ] 8/28/2009 Profile of Catholic Australian Born Chinese1. Age profile of ABC Catholics vs. ABCs as a whole From a previous post we saw that 44% (or 23,700) of ABCs identified by the ABS as 'Christian' are, in fact, Roman Catholics. That's a huge figure - and today we're going to look a bit closer at that section of our mission field. First off we have a graph showing the age profile of ABCs as a whole (black), compared to the age profile of Catholic ABCs (red). They map to different scales to the left and the right of the graph.  This graph helps us to compare the shape of the two graphs - and from it you can see that Catholic ABCs tend to lack kids in the 0-9 years age bracket in comparison to ABCs as a whole, but slightly lead the ABC graph in the 15-49 age range. 
Note that this is all ABCs - including those that are Buddhists, 'Other religions', and the very significant 'No religion'. That's why the red line looks so low here. 2. Age profile of ABC Catholics vs. 'Christian' ABCs In these next two graphs I've compared ABC Catholics to the whole 'Christian' group of ABCs. This first one gives you a comparison of the two graph shapes, showing that ABC Catholics tend to be slightly older than the 'Christian' ABC group as a whole.  And here I've plotted that graph on the same scale.  You can see that the red line is much more significant here - it represents 44% of the area under the black line! Although again you can actually see it tends to be stronger in the middle of the age range, and weaker in the younger age ranges. 3. The background of ABC Catholics What is the background of these Catholic ABCs? The remaining two graphs are of Overseas Born Chinese (OBCs), not Australian Born Chinese (ABCs). However going on the assumption that many people retain the religion of their parents, from this we can see what kind of background these ABC Catholics are likely to have. So here is a graph showing the region of birth of OBC Catholics. Note that it's a logarithmic graph because some of the figures were very large in comparison to others (eg. Maritime South-East Asia compared to Central and Western Africa).  You can see that the significant regions of birth for OBC Catholics are: Maritime South-East Asia (25,228), Chinese Asia (17,780), Mainland South-East Asia (2,586), Melanesia (1,629), Southern and East Africa (1,492) and 'Not stated' (1,383). In this last graph I've zoomed into those more significant regions for OBC Catholics and broken them down into countries. This one is a linear graph.  From this you can see the kind of countries that OBC Catholics have predominantly come from - which then suggests the background for their ABC kids. And the stand-out countries are: Hong Kong (9,436), Indonesia (8,354), Malaysia (7,911), and China (7,152). This is followed by Singapore (3,887), the Philippines (2,822), East Timor (1,994), Vietnam (1,922), PNG (1,439) and Mauritius (1,081). [ PS: know many Chinese Catholics? what countries did their family come from? ] 8/26/2009 Map of where recent Chinese migrants live in SydneyIf you want to reach out to recent Chinese migrants, where would you do it? Here is a map, constructed using 2006 ABS census data, that shows where Chinese who migrated to Australia during the first half of 2006 were living. The map highlights how prominent the Ryde and Randwick areas are in terms of recent Chinese migrants (ancestry = Chinese; year of migration = 2006).  Here is a table with the actual numbers of Chinese migrants. I have highlighted the areas with significant numbers of migrants. Note that the ABS census was conducted part-way through 2006, so it's a little dated, and doesn't represent figures for the whole of 2006. More recent data on migrants can be found at the Dept. of Immigration website (as recent as the past financial year) - but no pretty maps to look at!
[ PS: where is your church on the map? and how is it going at reaching out to recent Chinese migrants? ] 8/25/2009 How are we going at reaching the ABCs?Here are some more stats, generated by the CDATA section of the ABS website. We're looking at the Australian Born Chinese (ABCs), and this time we'll see how they define themselves in terms of religions. This'll give us an insight into how we're going at reaching the ABCs - and what challenges lie ahead! Before we get to the ABCs, this first pie graph shows you the religion of all people of Chinese ancestry, whether born here or overseas. You can see that 29.8% of all Chinese identify themselves as some kind of Christian.  This next pie graph however, is just ABCs - those people of Chinese ancestry, but who were born here in Australia. And of these ABCs, 37.5% identify themselves as some kind of Christian. But exactly what kind of Christian are we talking about here?  In this next pie graph we zoom in on those 53,907 ABCs who identified themselves as being a Christian of some sort. And from this you can see what kind of Christian denomination they identified with.  The following table gives you the actual number of ABCs in each of these sub categories. Note that these figures are for the whole of Australia.
Not surprisingly, the largest unreached segment of the ABC demographic are the 'No religion' section. Most of our outreach and apologetics will need to be developed with that in mind. But what surprised me most about these figures was how many ABCs describe themselves as being Catholics - 23,700 ABCs, or 44% of the 'Christian' category - and is still to be reached with the gospel! [ PS: any other reflections on this data? ] 8/23/2009 Maps of the Chinese in Brisbane Here I am in sunny Brisbane for BLT+! And to celebrate that small fact, here are some maps that might be useful for those doing ministry amongst the Chinese in Brisbane. First off, a map of where people of Chinese ancestry are in Brisbane. There are 47,842 people of Chinese ancestry up here!  Next is a map of where the ABCs are in Brisbane. Out of all the people up here of Chinese ancestry, there are 10,260 who were actually born in Australia.  And finally, here is a map of where recent Chinese migrants are living in Brisbane. In the year leading up to the 2006 ABS census, there were 1,555 Chinese people who migrated to Brisbane.  And how are things going by way of reaching out to the Chinese in Brisbane? Here is a pie graph showing you that 32.9% of the Chinese in Brisbane identify themselves as some kind of Christian...  [ PS: had a great time at BLT+ this year! ] 8/21/2009 Map of where ABCs live in Sydney Here is a map of where Australian Born Chinese (ABCs) live in Sydney, generated from the CDATA section of the ABS website.  And here are the actual numbers for you, in a table. I've highlighted the areas with particularly high numbers of ABCs.
This map shows you the areas where we definitely need Chinese churches to be establishing second-generation ministries! And from this you can already see what a huge need there is, particularly in the South-West of Sydney... [ PS: where is your church on the map? ] 8/19/2009 Age profile of the Australian Born Chinese The ABS has made available some amazing technology - which means that I can now create graphs from disparate bits of data (called CDATA). Kind of boring for you... but very, very exciting for me. And here's the cash value: from this we can find out things like how many ABCs there actually are in Australia, by correlating (a) ancestry = Chinese, and (b) place of birth = Australia. In Australia there are 630,598 people who identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry. And of these, 143,678 were born in Australia - the Australian Born Chinese. We can also get an age breakup for this group, and so here in this first graph, we have the age profile of these 143,678 ABCs in Australia as a whole. 
This next graph shows you the breakup of these ABCs for the different states and territories. 
For comparison, here is the age profile of all people of Chinese ancestry - the big spike in the 20-24 age bracket being a result of overseas Chinese students!  As the ABCs move from their student years into the workforce, they will increasingly become a vocal and important segment of any Chinese church. How is your church going at paving the way for that new stage of your church's life? [ PS: more graphs coming soon... ] 8/16/2009 Time to move on We made the announcement this morning - and here is a copy of my resignation letter... [ PS: I'm in Brisbane next weekend speaking at BLT+, looking forward to seeing all you Brissie readers up there! ] 8/12/2009 Pathways for overseas Chinese students in Australia The AEI divides the education sector into different areas: higher education, vocational training (VET), intensive English language study (ELICOS), schools, and 'other'. And in 2008 the AEI published this study of the 'pathways' overseas students took through their studies in Australia - because not everyone just comes here to just do one kind of course... The study looked at students who began their studies in Australia in 2005, and tracked what they then did in subsequent years - whether they moved on to other sectors in subsequent years, or just stayed in the one sector (that's why it was only published in 2008) - their 'pathways'. And what I've done here is pulled the data about Chinese students out of the study, and made pie graphs out of them. First off, a pie graph showing you the proportion of single-sector, and multi-sector pathways for students from China.  What is immediately obvious is that Chinese students who began their studies in 2005 didn't just stay in one sector: the majority of them (71.3%) actually take on a multi-sector pathway during their time here in Australia. Next is a pie graph showing you a breakdown of those Chinese students commencing studies in 2005 who only took single-sector pathways.  Not surprisingly, the majority of those were in higher education (3283 students) - and presumably doing a course of study that will see them studying in Australia for several years. This third pie graph shows you the breakdown of the multi-sector pathways taken by Chinese students.  Obviously, ELICOS courses are seen as an important foundation for further study, with many adding it to school or, more popularly, a higher education course. But from this you can also start to get a sense of how significant the Higher education sector factors in multiple pathways. This is significant in that it reveals how long students from China stay in Australia for their education. Over 53% of students will be here for at least three or more years - these are the ones doing Higher education courses, or a mixture of other courses plus Higher education (thereby extending their stay even longer). In fact the majority will actually be staying for a longer time than it takes to do a standard undergraduate degree, with only 19.2% of Chinese students doing Higher education alone, compared to 28.0% doing ELICOS-Higher education. [ PS: how intentional is your ministry at reaching and discipling Chinese students in the few years they are with us? ] 8/7/2009 SCCCA networking dinner 2009Last month SCCCA English held the annual networking dinner for pastors/elders/deacons from Chinese churches to meet students from Bible colleges who are open to Chinese church ministry. It was a great night, with a roughly 50:50 ratio of theologs, to pastors/elders/deacons, and theologs coming from Moore, SMBC and Morling.
 On the night Brian Tung gave a short talk on recruiting staff, Archie Poulos spoke on the need to raise up people from our own churches, and I gave a few pointers for theologs on taking up that first job out of college.
Here, in point form, are the things I said to the students:
1. Trust your Bible college education - we have some great colleges in Sydney, and their job over the years has been to prepare students to think theologically, to be alert to culture, to be prayerful and selfless and profoundly God-honouring. It may not have been obvious, but that's what they've been trying to do! However there is still always more learning, more intergrating that can happen and so... [ PS: should have been there, but missed out? SCCCA English holds it annually - look out for the advertising again next year! ] 8/6/2009 Forgiveness - and its absence in Chinese culture! 1. How common is forgiveness in the Chinese household?Recently our church ran a children's holiday programme, and one of the things they talked about was forgiveness. But to the great surprise of the leaders, many of the primary schoolers did not know what forgiveness was!
Children understand forgiveness in one of two ways: either (a) they are recipients of forgiveness by someone, or (b) someone asks the child to forgive them. It's from experiencing forgiveness in everyday relationships that children learn what forgiveness is all about!
But the thing is that forgiveness is rare in the dynamics of a Chinese household... Consider: it's highly unusual for a Chinese parent to say, "Look son, I forgive you." And almost unheard of for a Chinese parent to say, "Son, I was wrong to lose my temper last night. Will you forgive me?"
Instead what usually happens is that relationship problems are swept under the carpet. There might have been a lot of yelling at night, but on the next morning things carry on as usual, with no sign that anything had happened the previous night. Relationships are restored and the issue dropped - without forgiveness. Or perhaps after a lot of scolding the parent might emit a frustrated "aaaaaah!", waving their hand in a disgusted fashion. Signalling that they want to be rid of this issue - but maintaining that they are still in the right. And of course reserving the right to bring this matter up in any number of future arguments. 2. Can we really have reconciliation without forgiveness? What's behind this is partly the concern for one's face. A Chinese person obviously loses face by asking for forgiveness, since it highlights their inferior moral position. But a Chinese person also loses face by offering forgiveness - because by doing so there is a feeling that you are letting go of the right you have over someone. This is why it is so rare to find forgiveness in the dynamics of Chinese relationships.
This might bring about the effect of reconciliation - but not through the means of forgiveness. The outcome of reconciliation is actually quite important, and so Chinese people will work towards that - or at least towards the appearance of harmony. "Why insist on forgiveness, when we can still achieve reconciliation?" it is argued." Shouldn't that be our goal, after all?" And so as to achieve a kind of reconciliation and preserve face at the same time, Chinese avoid forgiveness entirely in favour of quietly dropping the argument overnight. Or in favour of magnanamously relenting, while holding on to their right to be hurt.
However it is not up to us to decide that reconciliation without forgiveness is acceptable among the people of God. We are to be a people of forgiveness who, astoundingly, forgive as the Lord has forgiven us. We are to be experts at forgiveness! In Colossians 3 Paul says, 12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. It's clear here that it's not just reconciliation - but forgiveness that God demands of us! 3. How do we become a people who forgive much? But there is another reason why we do not forgive. And it's because we Chinese tend to think there's really not a great deal we ourselves have to be forgiven for... At this point you should go and read two earlier posts on the Chinese understanding of sin here and here. But essentially neo-Confucianism on the one hand, and an unfortunate choice in the translation of the Chinese Union Bible on the other predisposes Chinese Christians to believe that they themselves are not actually very sinful - and therefore not in very great need of forgiveness! In Luke 7 Jesus is criticised for allowing a woman to clean and anoint his feet with perfume and her tears. Jesus tells a story about two men, one who had a large debt cancelled, and another a smaller debt cancelled. And what we see in this woman was that her many sins had been forgiven! We withold forgiveness because we imagine we are educated and virtuous ren with a good and respectable lien - like the respectable dinner guests around Jesus. But in the gospel we learn that we are nothing of the sort - we are the sinful woman! And so ultimately we become a forgiving people, not because we force ourselves to do so magnanamously, but as an overflow of seeing the full depth and horror of our sin - and the enormous forgiveness we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ! [ PS: how awesome it would be if our families became models of how forgiveness works! ] 8/1/2009 Foreign students in Australia 2009 Okay, got some more graphs for you today on overseas students, from data released last month by Australian Education International (AEI, get the actual figures here). This first bar graph shows you the numbers of students from six Asian countries (these six countries have been targeted by AEI as part of the "Study In Australia 2010" campaign).  China is obviously still leading the way in sending the largest number of students to Australia with 43,218 students enrolled in May 2009 (followed by India with 32,157 students). However not all of them are uni students! And so this next bar graph shows you the breakdown of which education sector these 43,218 Chinese students are in.  The vast majority of them are in higher education (17,080 students). This year there are over 4,000 extraChinese students coming to study in higher education on top of the figures for last year! However while a lot of Chinese students commenced in higher education - this is masked by another sizeable group (11,162 students) who are studying an ELICOS course (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students), usually in preparation for further study. For those interested in India, you can get a similar breakdown for Indian students at my Photobucket here (and the profile is signifiancty different, with many more VET students).
Finally this third bar graph shows you the growth from 2008 to 2009 for five of those SIA countries, by sector. I have left India off this time, because including it distorts the graph somewhat. However if you really want to, you can see the complete graph (including India) on my Photobucket here.  So no major surprises for us this time around - just the same picture of even more Chinese students coming to Australia to study! But while all this growth is going on, how are we actually going at reaching them? what is your ministry doing about these overseas students? [ PS: coming up, the pathways that overseas Chinese students take... ] |
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