Online Book Club

Welcome to the Online Book Club!

We invite friends, scholars, and curious readers to join us as we explore works that illuminate Chinese worldviews, past and present. Through these shared readings and discussions, we aim to gain richer insights into China, the church, and their ongoing global impact.

In this season of uncertainty, we choose to turn a time of isolation into a shared journey of patience, hope, and meaningful discovery. We’re so glad you’re here.

Recent book club session

FACILITATOR Joann Pittman is the Vice-President for Partnerships and China Engagement at ChinaSource. Before joining ChinaSource she spent more than 20 years in China as a teacher, student, and intercultural trainer. She has taught courses in Chinese history, culture, and language at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), Taylor University (IN), and Wheaton College (IL).

About the book:

A riveting, firsthand investigation of China’s seismic progress, its human costs, and what it means for America.

For close to a decade, technology analyst Dan Wang―“a gifted observer of contemporary China” (Ross Douthat)―has been living through the country’s astonishing, messy progress. China’s towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout the society. This reality―political repression and astonishing growth―is not a paradox, but rather a feature of China’s engineering mindset.

In Breakneck, Wang blends political, economic, and philosophical analysis with reportage to reveal a provocative new framework for understanding China―one that helps us see America more clearly, too. While China is an engineering state, relentlessly pursuing mega projects, the United States has stalled. America has transformed into a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything, good and bad.

Blending razor-sharp analysis with immersive storytelling, Wang offers a gripping portrait of a nation in flux. Breakneck traverses metropolises like Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen, where the engineering state has created not only dazzling infrastructure but also a sense of optimism. The book also exposes the downsides of social engineering, including the surveillance of ethnic minorities, political suppression, and the traumas of the one-child policy and zero-Covid.

In an era of animosity and mistrust, Wang unmasks the shocking similarities between the United States and China. Breakneck reveals how each country points toward a better path for the other: Chinese citizens would be better off if their government could learn to value individual liberties, while Americans would be better off if their government could learn to embrace engineering―and to produce better outcomes for the many, not just the few.

REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT BOOK CLUB EVENT

We are actively working on the next book club session in 2026, please join us to learn more about China and Chinese Christianity.

The Feb. 1 meeting on Lian Xi’s BLOOD LETTERS proved a wonderful discussion of Lin Zhao’s complicated life and Christian response to Mao’s China.