Pinghua, Southern in China

People Name:	Pinghua, Southern
Country:	China
10/40 Window:	Yes
Population:	2,356,000
World Population:	2,356,000
Primary Language:	Pinghua, Southern
Primary Religion:	Non-Religious
Christian Adherents:	5.00 %
Evangelicals:	3.60 %
Scripture:	Unspecified
Ministry Resources:	No
Jesus Film:	No
Audio Recordings:	No
People Cluster:	Chinese
Affinity Bloc:	East Asian Peoples
Progress Level:

Introduction / History

Although the Pinghua Chinese are counted as part of the Han nationality, their language is clearly distinct from all other varieties of Chinese.

The Song Dynasty (960-1279): Zhao Kuangyin conquered more than a dozen regional kingdoms and assumed power in 959. The Song period is usually divided into the Northern Song (960-1126) ruled from Kaifeng City in Henan Province; and the Southern Song (1127-1279) which had Hangzhou in present-day Zhejiang as its capital. The northern state had fallen to Tibetan and Mongol kingdoms, who set up their own rule in the north, known as the Western Xia (1038-1227) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties. The Song rulers were forced to relocate to Hangzhou. During this time, the world first learned about the mysteries and grandeur of China after explorers such as Marco Polo visited there.

What Are Their Lives Like?

Most are agricultural.

What Are Their Beliefs?

The Chinese Book of History mentions that at the dawn of Chinese history in the days of Yao and Shuen, 2,200 BC, a terrible inundation was recorded that had once desolated the land. "In their vast extent the waters embrace the mountains and over-top the hills, threatening heaven with their floods." The Chinese have now reduced these accounts to merely a bad flood of the Yellow River.

Guangxi, which means "vast west," has traditionally been one of the parts of China most neglected by missionaries. In the 1920s workers lamented that there were "areas inhabited by [minority] tribes where no Christian worker would be familiar with the languages spoken and where the country has not as yet been explored."

What Are Their Needs?

There are Southern Pinghua Christians, but the harvest is incomplete.

Prayer Points

Pray for a complete harvest among the Southern Pinghuas, blessing them in every way.
Pray that soon, Southern Pinghuas will be discipling others in the ways of Christ.
Pray for the Southern Pinghuas to soon become Christ s ambassadors to the lost in Yunnan Province.