The Gwangxi province is home to the largest minority group in China—over seventeen million Zhuang. There are two main groups, the Northern and the Southern Zhuang. While the Northerners are being assimilated into the Han Chinese culture and becoming largely atheistic, the Southerners still maintain their traditional practices of ancestor and spirit worship and their agricultural lifestyle.
Although the Zhuang are friendly to outsiders, their diversity of language and culture, the mountainous terrain, and the remoteness of many villages pose a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in communicating the Gospel. Little has changed since a 1922 report stating that there are fifty-eight cities, seven hundred market towns, and over seventeen thousand villages in Gwangxi alone where no effort is being put forth to preach Christ. Of the fifty-plus dialects of Zhuang, none have the Scriptures.
Winter 2008-09