Dr Aminta Arrington, Research Tutor and Stage Leader at OCMS, has a strong track record of research on the Lisu people in China. This led to her being invited to contribute to the recently published volume Highland Christianity: Modern Transformations of the China–Southeast Asia Borderlands. We are delighted to highlight Aminta’s latest publishing accomplishment.
Bringing together a wide range of scholars, this new work explores the growth and transformation of Christian faith across the mountainous borderlands of China and Southeast Asia—often referred to as “Zomia. The volume sheds light on communities such as the Lisu, Kachin, and Ahmao, whose engagement with Christianity has reshaped identity, culture, and belonging in the region.
Dr Arrington served as a contributing editor to the volume, supporting the development of a collection that foregrounds local voices and lived realities. Her involvement reflects both her long-standing commitment to World Christianity and her particular expertise in the highland contexts explored in the book.
Aminta’s research interests are closely coupled with lived experience. Earlier in her career, she spent eight years living and teaching in China with her young family, where she developed close relationships with local communities and began the research that would shape her scholarly journey. Her doctoral work focused on the Lisu people—an ethnic group spread across southwest China and neighbouring regions—whose vibrant Christian faith is expressed through communal life, music, and worship.
Her award-winning book, Songs of the Lisu Hills, captures this distinctive expression of faith and remains an important contribution to the study of Christianity in the region. It is this same depth of engagement—combined with ethnographic and theological insight—that she brings to her work on Highland Christianity.
The volume is already being recognised as a major contribution to the field. It brings together indigenous scholars and external researchers to explore themes such as mass conversion, the development of written languages for Bible translation, and the creative ways in which highland communities have adapted Christian faith within their own cultural frameworks. In doing so, it moves beyond older, colonial narratives and instead highlights the agency and innovation of these communities.
Dr Arrington’s role in shaping this work reflects a wider commitment at OCMS to research that is both academically rigorous and grounded in real-world contexts. As this volume reaches a global audience, we celebrate Dr Arrington’s contribution to a project that advances scholarship and honours the lived faith of communities often overlooked in mainstream narratives of Christianity.
Highland Christianity brings together indigenous, in-group scholars and external researchers to examine Christianity’s complex entanglement with ethnicity and modernity across eastern Zomia. Moving beyond colonial frameworks, this volume maps the profound and ongoing transformations of communities across this borderland region. It will be an essential resource for scholars and students of world Christianity, Asian studies, and anthropology.
In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Aminta Arrington, Chijui Hu, Jianxiong Ma, Pum Za Mang, Lagai Zau Nan, Anh-Minh Nguyen-Dang, Yoichi Nishimoto, and Zhu Jili.Show less.
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