The World Series #1: Finally, a voice for rural women in China

Photo: tylerdurden1 / Source: Flickr Creative Commons

With all the fuss about Beijing 2008, and the ceaseless news of China as a rising economic superpower, we hardly think of the nation as the mysterious, communist stronghold it once was. But in spite of all the modernization, hundreds of millions of Chinese live quiet, isolated lives in the sprawling countryside. It's a place where computers are still foreign, where women still have to refer to their husbands as "master" and where forced abortions of baby girls are still as vogue as ever. For women, it can be a life of oppression and misery. In fact, the Chinese countryside is the only place on earth where the suicide rate is higher for women than for men.

One spitfire Beijing woman is trying to change that -- with her pen. She started a magazine that's giving oft-silenced Chinese women a voice. Read about it here.

"The World Series" is a series of articles exploring social, cultural and political trends outside the United States. It's an effort to encourage thinking outside the American box and becoming informed so we can learn how to pray for -- and love -- those who are vastly different than ourselves.