Finding "God" in Zhuang Part 1

Below is a story about Translation work among the Zhuang:

In 2007, we were working on a translation of a Chinese language evangelistic video into a Zhuang dialect. Our work was primarily with young Zhaung translators, as they had a higher level of education, and knew some English. There were several hurdles to overcome in the process, one of which was to find appropriate words for some of the key religious terms used in the video‚ the most significant being the word for "God."

Most of the local Zhuang believers were using the term "Cangj-dij" for God, which is a direct transliteration* of the Mandarin Chinese term, "Shangdi." We were not satisfied with this term, however, as our goal was to have the message understood by villagers with little or no access to Mandarin Chinese. Our heart was to see Zhuang churches established using their own concepts, and not being overly influenced by the Chinese church.

To be continued on Monday....

*transliteration simply means to translate using the closest corresponding letters from one language to another. This means that the pronunciation is transferred but not meaning.