Voice 1 Hello, I'm Liz Waid. Voice 2 And I'm Ruby Jones. Welcome to Spotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1 The Amity Printing Company - Nanjing, China. The quiet humming sound of equipment fills the air. These modern printing machines are able to produce large numbers of books very quickly. Every second, one complete book arrives at the end of the production line. The Amity printing factory is a very busy place! And the book that it is producing is in great demand. It has become one of China's best-selling books. In fact, in December 2007, Amity produced the fifty millionth copy of this book. So what is the name of this book? Well, the answer may surprise some people! It is the Bible - the Christian holy book.
Voice 2 So, why is this surprising? Well, China's recent history did not encourage religion of any kind. In 1949, twenty years of civil war finally ended. The winning side was the Chinese Communist Party. Its leader was called Mao Zedong. Zedong firmly rejected any kind of belief in God. Mao was a Communist. So he had particular ideas about how to manage the economy and land. These ideas centred on the people and did not include a belief in any kind of higher power. From 1949, China was officially an atheistic country - the authorities rejected the idea that a god of any kind existed. Later, Mao was reported to have said ‘Religion is poison'. Voice 1 However, some people in China did believe in God. And some of those followed the teachings of Jesus Christ - they were Christians. They wanted to continue to follow his ways - to meet together to pray and read the Bible. But behaving like this was illegal. It went against the values of Communism. So Christians had to meet in secret. And they had to hide their Bibles from the authorities.
Voice 2 Mao Zedong was responsible for what he called, the ‘Cultural Revolution'. He wanted all Chinese people to follow his particular communist beliefs. Mao Zedong ordered his ‘red guards' to arrest anyone who did not follow Communist Party rules. This included several different kinds of people - party members who did not agree with Zedong's methods, educated people, and religious people such as Christians. The authorities sent millions of people to work in prison camps. They executed many thousands of people. And they burned books that they considered to be anti-Communist, like the Bible.
Voice 1 During this time, Mao Zedong decided to published a book. It contained his thoughts on a number of different subjects. People called it, the "Little Red Book". And it became the most popular book in the country. Zedong expected people to read and learn about his ideas. If they did not, then they were not true Communists. So, the authorities punished them. It was a tense, difficult time for many Chinese people.
Voice 2 Mao Zedong died in 1976. And the Cultural Revolution finally came to an end one year later. A more moderate leader then took power: Deng Xiaoping. He reformed China's economy. And he permitted trade with international companies. This was something that Mao Zedong had refused to do. Slowly, China's economy became stronger and more successful. In fact, today, it is the second largest economy in the world. Chinese people have more money to spend. And more goods from all over the world are in stores for people to buy.
Voice 1 The government's attitude toward religion is also different. There are now a number of official churches across the country. And, many unofficial Christian groups also meet together. People estimate that the number of Chinese Christians is well over 30,000,000.
Voice 2 Li Bai Guang is a human rights lawyer. He is also a Christian. He believes that he knows why the number of Chinese Christians is increasing. He says: Voice 3 "Rising wealth means that more and more people have been able to meet their material needs - the need for food and clothing. Then they are finding that they need to satisfy their spiritual needs - to look for happiness for their hearts. Also, they are seeing a breakdown in the moral order as money takes over. So, more and more people are turning to Christianity." Voice 2 And, more and more people are buying Bibles. The Amity Printing Company is China's only authorized publisher of Bibles. The company started in 1986. Since that time, it has sold over 50,000,000 Bibles. And demand is increasing. So, the company opened an even larger factory in May 2008. This factory can produce 1,000,000 Bibles a month. This means that the total number of copies produced will increase by more than 300,000! Amity Printing will then be the largest single producer of Bibles in the world.
Voice 1 However, there are not many places that sell Bibles. Normal Chinese bookstores do not sell Bibles. So many people are surprised at the high number of sales each year. Official churches organize the sale of Bibles at church meetings or at other religious gatherings.
Voice 2 And the Amity Printing company is happy to work with the Chinese government in this matter. It believes that it is offering a valuable service to the people of China. Peter Dean has been working at Amity since 1991. He says: Voice 4 "This factory has been built as a blessing to the Chinese nation. It will print Bibles for China for as long as it takes to do it." Voice 2 China has come a long way since the days of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. And so has the Bible. We finish today's programme with some words from this best-selling book: Voice 5 "Do not worry about anything. But pray and ask God for everything you need - always giving thanks. God's peace is so great that we cannot understand it. But it will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Voice 1 The writer and producer of today's programme was Ruby Jones. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotations were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. Computer users can hear our programmes, read our scripts and see our word list on our website at http://www.radio.english.net. This programme is called, ‘China's New Favourite Book'. Voice 2 If you have comments or questions about our Spotlight programmes you can reach us by email. Our address is radio @ English . net. Thank you for joining us today, goodbye.
