NANJING, CHINA — The factory looks like it could be any plant in this export-driven nation. Hundreds of Chinese workers huddle over loud machines churning out large orders for customers at home and abroad.
But what they're making might surprise you: Bibles.
As Tibetan monks grab headlines protesting the lack of religious freedom under Chinese rule, a booming Bible industry is turning the world's biggest atheist nation into the world's largest supplier of the Good Book.
Chairman Mao might have said, "Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people," but here at Nanjing Amity Printing Co., China's only state-sanctioned Bible printer, little time is wasted pondering the contradictions of a metaphysical mismatch.
"We are printers," said Li Chunnong, the general manager of the plant, which has about 500 employees. "As long as somebody legitimate sends us an order, we will print them."
This pragmatic mind-set has contributed to the company's staggering growth. Since its first Bible rolled off the presses two decades ago, Amity has printed more than 50 million copies in 75 languages and exported to more than 60 countries. With the help of a new hangar-sized facility, the company is on its way to becoming the biggest Bible factory in the world, cranking out 12 million copies a year.
"The Bible is probably the bestselling book in the world," Li said. "People need spiritual fulfillment. There is a huge demand for what we do. We have certainly benefited from that phenomenon and will not let the market slip from our hands."
This kind of talk was almost unimaginable just a generation or two ago. During the radical years of the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, just about the only reading material the Chinese people had was the Little Red Book of Mao Tse-tung's quotations -- certainly not a big black book of Jesus' parables. Demonized as spiritual pollution, copies of the holy text were confiscated and burned.
The dawn of market-oriented reforms in the late 1970s and early 1980s brought about a spiritual reawakening that led to bustling Buddhist and Taoist temples and the opening of the first state-sanctioned church in a nation where Christianity is a minority faith.
An estimated 30 million Christians now worship in government-approved churches that fall under the control of religious "patriotic associations." Tens of millions more are said to pray in underground outlets.
