Promoting Understanding of the History of the Chinese Bible: A Docent Training Programme for the Hong Kong Bible Society’s Exhibition “Encountering the Word of God”

Project Title:	Promoting Understanding of the History of the Chinese Bible: A Docent Training Programme for the Hong Kong Bible Society’s Exhibition “Encountering the Word of God”
Project Investigator:	Dr George Kam Wah Mak
Duration:	January 2020-June 2021
Partnering organization:	Hong Kong Bible Society
Name of the funding scheme & amount (if any)	Knowledge Transfer Partnership Seed Fund, Hong Kong Baptist University $100,000.
Introduction of the project	This project aims to promote understanding of the history of the Chinese Bible among the general public through developing a docent training programme for the Hong Kong Bible Society’s (HKBS) exhibition “Encountering the Word of God”. The training programme will nurture a group of docents with a knowledge of the exhibition’s subject matters informed by the Principal Investigator’s (PI) research works, as well as an awareness of the importance of preserving historical artefacts. It is expected that through the guided tours led by the trained docents, visitors to the exhibition from all walks of life will better understand the history of the Chinese Bible from the perspective of interaction between Christianity and Chinese society. Such understanding will help change the general public’s perception of the historical roles of Christianity in Chinese society, allowing them to see the transformations of modern China brought about by the activities of Chinese Bible translation, publishing and dissemination. This project will be of benefit not only to the PI’s research and teaching, but also to the revitalization of HKBS’s image as a Bible agency committed to serving the needs of Chinese-speaking Christians.
Underpinning Research	Training materials for the docent training programme will be developed on the basis of the PI’s published research works, which cover various aspects of Chinese Bible translation, publishing and distribution in late Qing and Republican China. The following are examples: Monographs Protestant Bible Translation and Mandarin as the National Language of China (Volume 131 of Sinica Leidensia). Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017, xvi+413 pages. (ISBN: 9789004316270) 《大英聖書公會與官話《和合本》聖經翻譯》。香港：基督教中國宗教文化研究社，2010年，xxiv+159頁。(ISBN: 9789627706212) Journal Articles “Introduction by Guest Editor George Kam Wah Mak”. Special Issue: The Mandarin Union Version, a Classic Chinese Biblical Translation. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, series 3, 30, 1 (2020): 7-19. “The Old Testament Also Needs Annotations: The National Bible Society of Scotland’s Annotated Edition of the Book of Proverbs in the Mandarin Union Version”. Special Issue: The Mandarin Union Version, a Classic Chinese Biblical Translation. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, series 3, 30, 1 (2020): 73-91. “The Belated Formation of the China Bible House (1937): Nationalism and the Indigenization of Protestantism in Republican China”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 78, 3 (2015): 515-535. “To Add or not to Add? The British and Foreign Bible Society’s Defence of the ‘Without Note or Comment’ Principle in Late Qing China”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, series 3, 25, 2 (2015): 329-354. 〈傳統與證據之爭：《和合本》新約希臘文底本問題初探〉，載於《聖經年刊》第三期 (2014)，頁1-18。〈大英聖書公會駐華經理與《和合本》中文聖經翻譯關係的探析〉，載於《近代中國基督教史研究集刊》第八期 (2008/2009)，頁32-46。 Book Chapters “The Colportage of the Protestant Bible in Late Qing China: The Example of the British and Foreign Bible Society”. In Religious Publishing and Print Culture in Modern China, 1800-2012, edited by Philip Clart and Gregory Adam Scott. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 17-49. 〈聖經翻譯中的通行官話概念－官話作為中國國家語言的前奏〉，收錄於謝品然、曾慶豹合編：《自上帝說漢語以來 —《和合本》聖經九十年》，香港：研道社，2010年，頁21-35。
Details of Impact	Not available, as the project is ongoing.
Reference Link to Research	See ‘Underpinning Research’.
Reference Link to Impact	Not available, as the project is ongoing.

Monographs

Journal Articles

Book Chapters