Editor’s note: This November we are praying for Huizhou, a city of about 6 million in Guangdong Province.
CP: What makes Huizhou unique among Chinese cities?
Huang Jianli: I’ve lived in Huizhou about five years, and I’ve noticed that Hakka culture is pretty strong here.[1] When I share the gospel with people in Huizhou, the biggest obstacles is the family or the clan. That’s where people face the most resistance. When people are about to receive Jesus as their Savior, there is an unspoken sense that they can no longer honor their parents the Hakka way – for example, after parents die, there are certain traditional memorial rites and tomb-sweeping. That kind of filial piety is highly valued.
Local Huizhou people in our church are pretty clan-oriented, and often have clan meals and get-together. That way of life is always there, and it can challenge their faith. For instance, it will affect small group meetings, because they won’t go to that if they have something with their family.
Brother Qu: I’m not from here, but have lived and worked here more than 20 years, so I know the city fairly well. I came to Guangdong for work, and chose to live in Huizhou because of the city’s culture. Huizhou’s city slogan is: “Local or newcomers, once you come to Huizhou, we’re all one family.” So, this is a city that attracts outsiders to settle down.
Huizhou has a nice, relaxed pace of life. When they ranked China’s most livable cities, it was in the top five. The natural setting is great, too, with mountains, seas, lakes, and rivers. A lot of people come to Huizhou to enjoy life. Huizhou doesn’t have much heavy industry, and the people who come here to work are mostly white-collar, in the electronics industry.
When you share the gospel, it’s relatively easy to build relationships with people. But, because there isn’t that kind of community network, it’s hard to build deep relationships. People are mostly casual acquaintances, people you nod to or play ball with. The relationships are all shallow, and it’s hard to build deeper trust and friendship.
Huizhou’s geographic location sits between Shenzhen and Meizhou. The city’s culture alsos sits between the two cities: Meizhou is the heart of Hakka culture, while Shenzhen is a city built by outsiders. Huizhou has some Hakka culture, but is not a big metropolis like Shenzhen.
CP: You’ve both mentioned Hakka culture. Could you explain a bit more for us – what is Hakka culture like?
Brother Qu: Well, I actually live in Meizhou now, which is called the “Hakka Capital.” “Hakka” roughly means people who moved down from the Central Plains [the lower Yellow River region, centered in Henan] and, after many years of migration, ended up here. Hakka people are basically outsiders who settled here. When a group from elsewhere settles in a new place, they develop certain characteristics: they stick together; they are hardworking, industrious, and brave; and they are very capable in getting things done.
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My first impression of Hakka culture was that the women are particularly capable. Back when I moved here, I couldn’t believe it when I would see women carrying their children while still working in the fields. But the Hakka women – at least those from a few decades ago, I’m not sure about the current generation! – anyway, middle-aged Hakka women are truly hardworking and virtuous.
CP: How long ago did this migration take place?
Brother Qu: I think the migrations happened over more than a thousand years. From what I’ve read, there were about seven different migrations, with the earliest probably beginning a few hundred years after Christ. This all went on for a long time.
Another thing you’ll notice about Hakka people is that they are hardworking. There are a lot of Hakka people throughout Southeast Asia now. Back when China was going through hard times, through famine and war, these people migrated to Southeast Asia. Many people from Guangdong went to Southeast Asia, and the Hakka were the majority of those people.
Yang Guang: I only came to this area a few years ago, so it’s still very unfamiliar. People come to Huizhou to work. During the day you don’t see anyone, but at night the place is lit up like a night market, and there are tons of people. Everyone comes home from work and gathers to eat and drink, and it goes all night long. There’s tea culture, drinking culture, and lots of mahjong, too. Square dancing is the most common exercise, and older men and women are out there all night. The nightlife is really lively.
The state keeps a very tight grip on things like education, and all the education is very atheistic. There’s a lot of “Red culture.” [2]
Brother James: Compared to other cities I’ve seen, the people in Huizhou are relatively well-educated and cultured. Huizhou has a large population of people who came here from elsewhere, so there’s a lot of blending among different groups: Cantonese people, plus Chaoshan and Hakka. Now, because of migrant workers, there are lots of people from other places here, and they are integrated with one another. I think that is a real grace in Huizhou.
CP: What is special about Huizhou’s gospel history?
Huang Jianli: There are some hospitals here that were once founded by missionaries. But I don’t know much about that yet.
Brother Qu: It doesn’t seem like there is anything very well-known about Huizhou’s gospel history. If there were, people would know about it, but it seems like it simply didn’t have a very big influence.
Yang Guang: I’ve noticed that Huizhou has a lot of church buildings. Almost every town and district in Huizhou has one. This shows that, on the surface, there are lots of churches and lots of believers. But the foundation of their faith – well, that’s different.
In China, church buildings are under government control. There are many churches like that, and the people in those churches are mostly older. There are very few young people in the Three-Self churches, while the house churches have quite a bit more young people.
Brother James: We did a bit of research and studied Huizhou’s history, and found that German Lutherans came to Huizhou very early. There was already mission work here by 1903. Later the Adventists came to Huizhou, and they built a hospital in 1909, the city’s first hospital and the predecessor of today’s Third People’s Hospital. In 1918, the Baptists also came to Huizhou.
Eventually these churches merged, and by 1950, all those churches were folded into the Three-Self system. Today, if you look at Huizhou, you can’t really find any concrete trace of this mission history.
[1] The Hakka (客家, literally “guest families”) are a Han Chinese subgroup descended from migrants out of northern China. They are concentrated in Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi, and are known for their own dialect, strong clan ties, and ancestral rites.
[2] “Red culture” refers to state-promoted Communist revolutionary heritage and ideology, such as patriotic education, Party history, and revolutionary memorial sites.
Huang Jianli, Brother Qu, Yang Guang, Sister Yan, Brother James, and Fan Zhuhui are pseudonyms for house church leaders in Huizhou.
Pray for Huizhou to become a city of people who wholeheartedly follow Jesus.
