The following is the responses from our staff during a session I helped lead on apologetics. It was a challenge for some of them to begin to think about how to answer the apologetic questions of their culture without being given the answers, but it is an important skill to learn. Moreover, it provides a good base for building an understanding of how to build an apologetic for our culture. It is interesting to see how some answers come up more than once, particularly the need for a relational component to our evangelism, and the ‘practicalness’ of the gospel. Food for thought.

How has Western thought interacted with Chinese thought in Hong Kong?

• HK people’s focus: Is that practical?
• HK has a mixed culture.
• Our parents still emphasis the value of a family, the virtue of respect. HK academic institutions value how to develop critical thinking, independence and profession.
• When we consider doing operation, we’ll find western way, but for nurturing a good health, we think Chinese medicine is more effective.
• Universities in HK also very practical, so more and more departments need placement/intern as an assessment of their academic performance.
• In the course evaluation of the universities, the evaluation on whether there is an all-round development is depends on whether one is living up to the standard of the employers, which is very practical.
• HK is very practical and focus on money. People don’t care much about whether the society is a closed one, but personal prosperity. There is a contradiction between democracy and harmony in HK.
• The concept of “family” may not be that of ancient China, who favors for “Big family”(many family members), but the importance of a family in a person’s life is still unchanged.
• For the food in HK, we can also see the mixture of different cultures, like cha-siu spaghetti.

What is a good apologetic for Hong Kong?

• People is fear about the loneliness and shame after they are converted. So they may need to know more about the identity in Christ, being the daughter and son of God.
• People always ask: Is it useful to believe in Jesus? Can I have a better living (materially)? They are fear / wonder if conversion is valuable.
• As HK people concern practical much, they regard the Gospel as something, which is academic, separated from their daily lives. They may need more really life testimonies, especially those telling about inter-personal relationship, to let them relate the Gospel to real life.
• Chinese always need to be praised, confirmed. We always care about the expectation of others. So maybe we need to honor and please them.
• Many people always saying that Gospel is only for the inferiors, together with materialism and feeling-oriented, how can we do apologetics? Feeling? Thinking?
• For guilt, shame and fear, these are inaccessible for Chinese because of self-esteem (“face”). Chinese need acceptance and have difficulty in trusting others. But that is their need. So how can we access to that part of a person? Is internet a good tool to express and respond? It seems that we need to do good through relational network.