chinese

Chinese is spoken mainly in China, and in Chinese communities around the world. Christianity was first introduced into China by the Nestorian Church of the East in the seventh century. Chinese speaking Christians are mainly evangelical Protestant, with a large Catholic minority, and the Chinese Church is growing.

In mainland China the language is called Mandarin, and in Hong Kong it is called Cantonese. Chinese is written in traditional script in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan (Formosa) and, Malaysia, but in mainland China and Singapore it uses a revised simplified script introduced by the communists.

The classic translation of the Scriptures is the Chinese Union Version (CUV) of 1919, which was revised in 2010 as the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV). Today’s Chinese Version (TCV) was produced by the Bible Society in 1979 and revised in 1995.

Bible work is done by the Hong Kong Bible Society, the Chinese Christian Council, Amity Press and the Bible Society in Taiwan. Chinese Bibles are available in traditional and simplified characters, and in Shen or Shangti editions, depending which word is used for God.