A literary language in transnational circulation for over a hundred years; a Gospel radio program; home studios in the bustling city; disc recordings sold at farmers’ markets; gospel songs shared on social media; a night-long song-signing daibbit performance in a church gathering; the inscription of ddoqmuq mutgguat singing on the ethnic heritage list—on the southwestern Chinese border, the Lisu hanleixsu have encountered all these sound technologies in their Christian practice of aurality. Most of the acoustic dimensions of early conversion were presented to the converts as written or printed forms, in which the Fraser script served as both a force that constituted the Christian vision of modernity and a medium for constructing knowledge about it. Deriving from American media evangelism, the radio as an emerging Christian medium introduced recorded sound to the separated hanleixsu for the first time, producing a different kind of church space and an audible technique for the new listening community. The home studio, with limited financial, technical, and material support, provided a vital link to the Lisu media practitioners who dedicated themselves to gospel music and media production for transnational circulation and listening. The disc recording— once prevalent for its affordability, durability, and reproducibility—provided the local community members with the opportunity to create and consume their own music for vernacular uses. The disciplining work on the public exhibition of Christian culture in the case of the Lisu peasant choir turned a usable Christian vocal technique into a legible sound object. Faith is (re) made or restrained through the aural as defined by relationality and renewability, which, I argue, is the essential part of the broader Lisu pursuit of Christian belonging.

Despite the seeming clarity of the Gospel message conveyed through each of the foregoing mediums, there have been many twists in the Lisu Christian process of striving after faith, twists that this book has attempted to describe. Lisu radio producers of GBM started to work for evangelical outreach, but later determined to make more Lisu music videos and films for nonradio use. In the Lisu transnational recording industry, the rapidly emerging media specialists based in Myanmar and Chiang Mai became stars, yet their fame arose not from any form of superiority but from their roles as advocates for community members.

To one convention held in the Christmas of 1968 on the Myanmar-Indian border:

May 25, 2014—The new chapel of Nongchang Church, Lushui County

I am sitting at the back row in order to have a better view of the congregation seated in front of me. I expect a lengthier time at today's Sunday noon service, as it will be combined with the dedication ceremony of the new church building (hinshir ddutbair). I know it because students of the Nujiang Christian training center have been rehearsing two dance performances for this special occasion. Although the ceremony is organized by and for the host Nongchang Church, churches in close proximity and from afar are invited to celebrate together the growth of the local faith community. Every seat (around three-hundred capacity) in the chapel is occupied and still a large crowd of several hundred others is standing on three sides of this open space, all looking onto the central podium. After congratulatory speeches, a short sermon, and an enthusiastic church fundraiser—the collec-tion box is passed around and people just throw money into the box—the presider announces the beginning of the praise time (xelgget rriq).

The presider has received piles of paper strips, indicating that several dozen performances have been lined up for the next couple of hours. Participants from the invited churches are welcome to perform as many songs as possible. I often recognize the familiar melodies of mostly Burmese origin that I have heard in other mass gatherings or through recordings.

Conversion does not seem to be a most obvious place to start the investigation of Lisu Christian striving by aurality. I could have begun with something more relevant to vocal cultivation and hearing—for instance, the practice of radio circuit listening discussed in chapter 2. And yet, I begin with conversion—a seemingly ineffable experience of deliberately working to change one's faith—because it is more than just one among many milestones in the history of Lisu Christianity. I am interested in conversion particularly for the ways it illuminates some central concerns of this book about Christian striving and belonging in terms of materiality, mobility, and (re)mediation. From this perspective, the study of Lisu conversion can be most useful by placing at the center of examination—rather than the cause or consequence of conversion—the kind of qualitative experience one undergoes in order to mold oneself into “an ideal Christian” in terms of broader semiotic ideologies about faith and conversion (Keane 2003).

Missionary records from the early twentieth century show that Protestant missionaries working among the Lisu generally understood conversion as both a one-time turning point and a continuous process of (re)confirmation.

This glossary is divided into four sections: personal names; genres, instruments, and musical terms; terms pertaining to Lisu Christianity; and other important terms. It is arranged according to the alphabetical order of Lisu Pinyin. Except for personal names, each term is given in Lisu Pinyin and the Fraser script, with brief English translation.