China Soul Premiers “Beyond” - Documentary on Faith Stories of Overseas Chinese

Nov 17, 2010 07:16 AM EST

After carefully producing the gospel film “Beyond”, China Soul Association has completed the project and is hosting the documentary movie premiers and evangelistic revival meetings in at least nine cities across United States, in Vancouver and Toronto in Canada, and in Sydney Australia, which began early this month.

“Beyond” is a T.V. documentary series consisting of ten episodes, telling the stories of overseas Chinese in Europe, Australia, and North America whose lives have been transformed because of their faith in God. The main characters of each episode consist of students, engineer, entrepreneur, pastor, lawyer, internet bride, and even stowaway, murderer, and gambler.

In an interview with The Gospel Herald last year, Rev. Zhiming Yuan, founder of China Soul Association and executive producer of “Beyond”, shared that the last documentary that their ministry produced was “The Cross” that compiled original testimonies of senior Chinese Christians from mainland China, which won great acclaims. Thus, he hopes that through this new documentary the journeys of overseas Chinese Christians can be documented.

At the very beginning, the decision was to make only four episodes, but because there are too many overseas Chinese Christian testimonies, so the number of episodes was increased to nine.

In the last decade, as China’s economy is booming, the number of immigrants from China to North America has started to exceed those immigrating to Taiwan and Hong Kong. Yuan hopes that through these representative stories of overseas Chinese Christians, those from China can understand the significance of faith.

Past media coverage on the overseas Chinese are mostly about the stories of gold mining and other businesses, but they don’t know about the life journeys of the numerous overseas Chinese, not to mention reporting on the harvest that overseas Chinese have received in faith, he said. These people documented either experienced success or failure, but they have all together gain a new life in the gospel.

The titles of the nine episodes are “Farewell to the Homeland”, “Wanderers of the World”, “Overseas Learning Trail”, “A Dream in Brazil”, “Healing in Washington”, “The Legend of San Francisco”, “The Spring of Vancouver”, “Internet Bride in Phoenix”, “Ageless Love in San Francisco”, “The Unfinished Story of New York.”

“The Spring of Vancouver” documents the testimony of Yongning Liu, a once successful entrepreneur from north eastern China who almost lost everything when he lost his fortune in Las Vegas and Macau, his company closed down, family broken down, and diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cord disorder called Syringomyelia. However, with his remaining savings, he managed to immigrate to Vancouver where he met Christians, and from there he quit gambling, returned his debts, stopped the medication, reconciled with his wife, and is now serving as a minister in Amazing Grace Christian Fellowship.

“Farewell to the Home” is a must see for Chinese Christians. This episode recounts the footsteps of faith of overseas Chinese, focusing on the story of how 36 students and scholars from mainland China then became ministers of the gospel. These individuals were students and scholars from Beijing University, Fudan University, Renmin University, Party School of the Central Committee, and other schools, majoring in literature, management, engineering, business, and other fields; now, they are all stand together as one besides Jesus in proclaiming the gospel with all of their lives.

Moreover, starting from the beginning of this month till early next year, CSA will partner with various Chinese churches throughout North America to host a series of evangelistic revival meetings in order to promote the film and its gospel message. Several of the main characters from the episodes will appear to meet with the audience, and Yuan will share at each event.

“Beyond” is available for sale in packages of the entire nine episodes, $60 USD, or in individual episodes, $10 USD. Orders can be made from China Soul Association’s website at www.chinasoul.org. In addition, CSA invites all Chinese to attend the nearest “Beyond” Premier/Evangelistic Revival Meetings and copies of Beyond will be available for purchase there.

For orders over phone or inquiries about the film, call (707) 585-9588.