The Translation of the Bible into Chinese

The history of the Chinese Union Version, set against the broader history of Chinese Bible translation

The publication of the Chinese Union Version (CUV) in 1919 was the culmination of a hundred years of struggle by Western missionaries working closely with Chinese assistants to produce a translation of the Bible fit for the needs of a growing church. Celebrating the CUV’s centennial, The Translation of the Bible into Chinese explores the unique challenges faced by its translators in the context of the history of Chinese Bible translation. Ann Cui’an Peng’s personal experience of the role played by the CUV in Chinese Christian communities lends the narrative particular weight, while her role as director of the Commission on Bible Publication at the China Christian Council offers a unique insight into the continuing legacy of the CUV for Bible translators today.

Ann Cui’an Peng is a senior associate with the Global China Center and serves as associate editor for the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. She was co-translator for the GCC series Salt and Light: Lives of Faith that Shaped Modern China. Peng received her PhD in theology from the University of Birmingham in 2007. She served as vice principal and lecturer in the 1990s at Nanjing Theological Seminary, where she had studied in the 1980s.

• By (author) Ann Cui’an Peng

"Ann Cui'an Peng offers us the remarkable history of Chinese Bible translation, the debates around creating the authoritative Chinese Union Version, and the challenges this tenacious version continues to pose to its readers today, a century after its first publication. An incredibly important book about the most important book of Chinese Christianity." Alexander Chow, Senior Lecturer in Theology and World Christianity, University of Edinburgh "This well-timed volume, coinciding with the hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Union Version Bible, offers a highly readable and accessible study of the translation history and reception of China's most widely read Bible edition. Peng's study is particularly helpful in updating the story of the Union Version to the present day as it contends with new translations and online reading aids." Chloe Starr, Associate Professor of Chinese Christianity and Theology, Yale University Divinity School "With the paucity of scholarship about the Bible in Earth's most populous nation, Ann Peng's book is of inestimable value: it fills a lacuna in an accessible yet robust way, revealing the curious journey of the Scriptures in China and brilliantly explaining its current form. She does not avoid controversies, but addresses headlong the often-bumpy road behind the transmission of God's Word. Monumental for its scope, this work helps us to see the modern-day Chinese Bible aright." Allen Yeh, Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies, Biola University
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