Shannon here: R.F. Whong shares insight into a Chinese tradition that inspired her writing plus an opportunity to get a free download Advanced Reader Copy of Zenith of Tea, her latest Action Adventure title. Comment or answer the question in any post dated Feb 16th – 28th to enter the drawing for 3 other titles. Deadline: March 7th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Ruth:
Do you know what a Ji Tong is?
I grew up in Asia, where annual festivals were basically our Super Bowl and a neighborhood block party rolled into one. The biggest spectacle of the year was the parade of Goddess Ma-Zu (妈祖). Drums thundered, incense smoked like an overachieving fog machine, and then—cue gasp—the Ji Tong would arrive. In my child’s memory he did all the impossible things: walked across flaming coals, cut himself with a sword without bleeding, and, between fire-walking and self-surgery, announced whether it would rain on Tuesday.
A Ji Tong (乩童, pronounced “ji-tong”) is a spirit medium: someone believed to serve as a living vessel for deities during rituals. When the trance arrives—sometimes with remarkable choreography—the ji tong allows the spirit to speak, heal, warn, or bless. The second character, 童 (tong), means “child,” not necessarily in age but in purity or suitability, a kind of spiritual open-concept floor plan.
As a kid, I took it all in with wide eyes and a sugar high. As an adult, I learned to ask harder questions. Recently I wrote a book, Fire Between Two Skies about the Taiping Movement, a millenarian civil war in mid-19th-century China that tragically ended the lives of twenty to thirty million people. Led by Hong Xiuquan, who claimed he was the younger brother of Jesus, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom challenged the Qing dynasty with equal parts theology and gunpowder. It was the deadliest civil war in Chinese history, and at its center were voices that claimed to speak for the divine.
Two of the Taiping kings, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, entered trances and spoke as God and Jesus Christ to guide and galvanize their followers. If you sidestep the geopolitics and the cannons, you can see how their performances fit into a long Chinese tradition of spirit mediums—Ji Tongs—whose authority comes not from election or exam but from channeling something greater. This is not to trivialize the Taiping. Rather, it helps us understand how vast human movements can be stirred by extreme religious practices. What I saw amid cymbals and incense in a temple parade echoes, in a haunting way, through the battlefields of the 1850s.
The Ji Tong’s flaming-coal walk can feel like a daredevil stunt—somewhere between ritual and reality TV.
But the deeper story is about the human hunger for connection with the spiritual realm. As a Christian, I recognize that hunger, yet I believe God meets it not through spectacle or self-trial, but through His own self-revelation—His living Word in the Bible and His ultimate Word in Jesus Christ. So, while I can watch Ji Tong’s coal walk with empathy for the longing it expresses, I anchor my hope in the God who has already come to this world in Christ and invites us into true communion with Him by grace.
Giveaway: Advanced reader copy Zenith of Tea
Note: To download this giveaway, you need to sign up for my weekly newsletter and join my launch team.
Reader Question: After reading this, would you say God has satisfied our deepest longing for communion with Him through Jesus Christ?
February Book Bundle #2
His Liberating Flame by Ashley Thompson, Contemporary Small Town Romance, PDF Download
Zenith of Tea by Ruth Wuwong, Advanced Reader sign up for weekly newsletter and join launch team to download
Annie True and Brave by Jody Day, Historical Fiction, print
Recipes with Love by Erma Ullrey, Contemporary Romance, e-book
About Ruth: Dr. Ruth Wuwong (PhD in biochemistry, MBA in finance) has published 120+ scientific books and papers (under her legal name) and a few Christian fiction books under R. F. Whong. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, a retired pastor. They served together at three churches from 1987 to 2020. Her grown son works in a nearby city.
She currently runs a small biotech company (www.vidasym.com) and has raised more than twenty million US dollars during the past few years for Vidasym.
In addition to her weekly newsletter and the platform (www.ruthforchrist.com), she’s active in several writers’ groups, including ACFW, Word Weavers, Facebook, and Goodreads. Through these connections, she plans newsletter/promotion swaps with others and has writers endorse her books, write forewords, and host her on guest blogs.
Ruth was chosen as a featured author by the Minnesota Anoka County Library in 2025 and by the Suffolk Virginia Authors Festival in 2026.
One of her books, Echoes over Stormy Sea, has won a few awards, including being chosen by readers as a winner in the HOLT Medallion Contest. Learn more & connect:
Ruth’s Facebook Ruth’s Twitter Ruth’s Website Ruth’s Linkedin
Ruth’s Instagram Ruth’s Goodreads Ruth’s Bookhip Ruth’s Bookbub
About the book – Fire Between Two Skies:
Two eras. One relentless quest for truth amid desires and temptation. Across the centuries, two men are bound by parallel destinies that echo through time. Book 3 of this dual-time odyssey delves deep into the passions and struggles that connect their worlds.
In 2022 Hong Kong, Jason Guan, after losing his job as an assistant supervisor for wetland conservation, joins his uncle’s real-estate business. A chance meeting with his high school classmate, Vivian Jiang, draws him into a web of secrecy, seduction, and moral compromise. Amid the chaos, he and his wife, Debra, read an unpublished manuscript by her father, a celebrated writer, about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851–1864) and a man’s futile pursuit of justice and peace on earth.
In nineteenth-century China, Zhang Xin, an orphan saved from the streets by Missionary Issachar Jacox Roberts, is swept into the fiery rebellion of the Taiping movement. Torn between the dream of a just kingdom, his forbidden love for Miao Lan, and his loyalty to his ruthless brother, Xin reckons with doubt, conscience, and the cost of faith.
When greed and exploitation eclipse justice, both men must navigate their respective perils. Will they prevail or be consumed?
Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Interested in Ruth’s other titles?
Need extra books for gifts? Get your copy/copies now!
Fire Between Two Skies Series Page Ruth’s Books
Come back Feb 21st for Shannon’s Book Bargains Roundup!
He has, and then some.
Yes, He did!