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Spreading the word: China's Bible

industry
Pompeo visit a
chance to tamp
down tensions
The visit of United
States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to
Beijing on Monday is a chance for the
two countries to de-escalate trade
frictions and conduct high-level
communication on the Korean
Peninsula issue, analysts said.

40 people in 40
years: Yue-Sai
Kan
32 years ago, in 1986,
Chinese people mainly saw the outside
world only by watching television at
home－starting with Yue-Sai Kan's One
World.

Better prices,
services boost
holiday travel
Nearly 730 million
Bible belt: stacking Bibles at the factory in Nanjing trips were made by Chinese travelers
within China over the seven-day
National Day holiday, a year-on-year
increase of 9.43 percent, thanks to
21 APRIL 2015 • 11:30AM
cheaper tickets and higher-quality travel
services.
By Cang Wei
Culture Insider: 8
things you may
The world's largest printer of Bibles is based in East China and, not know about
although it faces challenges, the company aims to maintain production Cold Dew
by embracing the modern world . The traditional Chinese lunar calendar

lmost every Sunday, Ge Conghui attends a church where,

Bible in hand, she joins fellow Christians to sing hymns, listen to
LATEST
sermons and pray.
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 A
The 29-year-old usually spends an hour at the church in Baixia
1
01 Oct 2018, 3:30pmBritish MP hails China-UK
progress, from fashion to
business

2
01 Oct 2018, 3:30pmInfographic: achievements
Street in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, and that’s roughly the same
in poverty relief 40 years on
time it takes for Amity Printing Co to produce 1,500 Bibles at its
facility in the city’s Jiangning district.

3
01 Oct 2018, 3:30pmSkills honed as China
Qiu Zhonghui, president of the company and secretary-general of
tackles rugby
the Amity Foundation, said that the company, which is the world’s
largest printer of Bibles, had printed 13.22 million copies in more

4
than 100 languages in 2014. The books had been distributed across 01 Oct 2018, 3:30pmMother and son embroidery
China, and in more than 70 countries and regions. team weave the threads of
history
“Since it was established, Amity Printing has printed 130 million
copies of the Bible,” Qiu, who is a Christian, said. “In 2012, we

5
01 Oct 2018, 3:30pmInfographic: China’s
celebrated production of the 100 millionth copy. It took 20 years to
agricultural development
print the first 50 million copies, but the second 50 million took just
five years.”

Bibles for all

Jointly founded by the Amity Foundation, an independent

voluntary organisation set up on the initiative of Chinese
Christians, and the United Bible Societies, a UK-based association of
145 national Bible societies, Amity Printing produced its first copy of
“the Good Book” in 1987.

“In the 1980s, many believers in China could not afford a Bible, or
they had nowhere to purchase one,” Qiu said. “Some people even
had to copy the book word by word, so the late Bishop Ding
Guangxun, who was the leader of China’s Christians and also
president of the Amity Foundation, said we should try to provide
Bibles to a greater number of people, and make them cheap so the
less well-off could afford a copy.

“Amity Printing started the country’s Bible industry in a remote area

of farmland in 1987, but in 2008 we moved to a new facility where
the annual print capacity is 18 million copies.”

In China the company's Bibles sell for 10 yuan ($1.60) to 30 yuan, a

price almost everybody can afford.

In June 2012, the State Administration for Religious Affairs

announced that 139,000 venues had been approved for religious
activities, 56,000 of those venues being churches and places in
which Christians could congregate.

According to estimates by scholars in China and overseas, there are

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 23 million to 40 million Christians in China, accounting for 1.7 to 2.9
percent of the population.

From 1987 to 2012, more than 105 million copies of the Bible were
printed in China, with 60 percent of them distributed within the
country, while the remaining 40 percent went overseas.

Cai Yongping, who has been with Amity Printing for more than 20
years, said he enjoyed working for the company, and was proud of
what he did.

The Good Book: the Amity Printing Co produces Bibles in 10 languages

“Because we provide an excellent and timely service to our

customers, we always have a large number of orders,” he said. “We
try our best to print the Bible according to the specific needs of the
various denominations and special-interest groups.

“For example, we have special copies for wedding ceremonies, and

a cute-looking edition for children. We also produce a large-print
version to make it easier for senior citizens to read, and have special
academic editions for scholars.”

Amity Printing also produces Bibles in 10 languages for members of

China’s ethnic groups, and by December of 2014 it had printed more
than 83,000 copies in Braille.

However, the use of the language for the blind means books have to
be printed on thicker-grade paper, so the Bible is divided into 32
separate volumes that sell for 1 yuan each, even though each set
costs more than 2,400 yuan to print.

Rising pressures

Despite its success, the appreciation of the yuan and the rise in
labour costs are putting pressure on the company, both in China

Convert webpages to pdf online w ith PDFmyURL

 and overseas.

“We have great cost-control pressures, but we will continue to offer

preferential prices because Amity Printing is a social enterprise that
aims to provide cheaper, affordable Bibles,” Qiu said.

As a faith-inspired enterprise, the company places great store in

observing its social responsibilities; the employees earn good
salaries and the company pays their social insurance. They are also
provided with dormitories, food, and an entertainment centre.

A watchful eye: an Amity employee performs a random check of print quality

“We do not need to say too much more. Anyone who is concerned
that we operate a sweatshop is more than welcome to visit us. We
also pay great attention to environmental protection, and insist that
the ink we use and the treatment of waste meet national standards,”
Qiu said.

Paper weight

At one time, rival printers in the Netherlands and South Korea had
better technology than Amity Printing, but the company has
replaced its old machinery with a German-made hard-copy assembly
line and a digital printer.

“Our technology matches the best international standards now, and

we are able to print our Bibles on lighter-weight paper,” he said,
referring to Amity Printing’s use of 22-gram paper (the weight of 1
square metre of paper), while many other companies use 28 or 32-
gram.

Cai Yongping said the company carefully researched the paper it

used. “A lot of people use their Bibles for many years, so the paper
needs to remain intact even if the book is read frequently. The paper
needs to be light, but it must not be too thin or the words on the
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 other side of the page will be visible.

“When we receive orders from clients in mountainous countries

and regions, we subject the paper to cold-temperature testing to
ensure that it will not become brittle at high altitudes.”

Smartphone Bibles

Qiu said the company is currently investigating the production of

an app to embrace modern reading methods.

“Rather than taking the book to church, many people like to read
the Bible on their smartphones,” he said. “Even though a large
number of people still have Bibles at home, younger worshippers
may soon change that habit.”

For the church-goer Ge Conghui, who said people of her

generation were accustomed to reading on their smartphones, the
content was far more important than the means of delivery.

“It is convenient, and the application software means we can also

listen to sermons and watch videos, but it does not matter if the
Bible is a hard copy or software as long as we can still find inner
peace,” she said.

• Find more fascinating articles on culture in China at China

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