China’s Olympic Pride (& Propaganda) / 1st Trip to China (22 Yrs Ago This Week)

Welcome to the China Compass Podcast on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I’m your host & China travel guide, missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures), where I post daily details and reminders to pray for China (PrayforChina.us). You can also email me with any questions or comments @ bfwesten at gmail dot com, which is my pen name. If you want to learn more about our missions projects or get any one of my books, visit PrayGiveGo.us.    This week, I'm trying to get back into my “normal” podcast schedule, as I comment on current events from a Chinese perspective, highlight one particular Chinese province to pray for, and then finish by telling a bunch of stories from my experiences in that particular province.   So we start by discussing China's Olympic pride and propaganda, dating back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and turning to the current medal competition with the United States. Here are the NPR articles that I referenced... https://www.npr.org/2024/08/09/nx-s1-5068021/olympic-medal-count-paris-gold-silver-bronze-total https://www.npr.org/2024/08/02/nx-s1-5061584/china-paris-olympic-gold-medal-count   Next we look in depth at the Chinese province of Jiangxi, which is paired up with Georgia in our Pray for China prayer scheme (https://prayforchina.us/index.php/georgia/). Hot, humid, hilly, located in SE China and and only slightly larger than Georgia, Jiangxi was the early hideout (aka, Jiangxi Soviet) of the the Communist guerillas (led by Mao) in the 1920s and 30s, as well as home to the important Lushan Hill Station, which was built by missionaries in the late 19th Century, but served as a de facto southern capital for the Communist Part for many years during Mao's reign.   Finally, during story time I talk about turning 19 on the streets of Jiangxi's capital, Nanchang. I share about our encounters with police (and a sheep!) in Yiyang and Lianhua, getting taken for a (yummy) ride in Ji’an, oversleeping on a wooden bed, walking circles around Ganzhou, and wading through the Dingnan floods all while "running from the light".   As I mention on the podcast, get your copy of Borden of Yale (free on Kindle!), who visited northern Jiangxi in the fall of 1904 at the age of just 16, and tells a few stories himself: BordenofYale.com