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Choi met So in 1973. Discovering a shared concern for Hong Kong's dispirited teenagers, they gathered a handful of young Christians to seek direction. Many, like them, had returned from overseas study.

Together the group decided to publish a magazine targeted to non-Christians, emphasizing cultural issues. Hong Kong's only Christian magazine had just folded.

"People said we would be crazy to sell a Christian magazine on the street," says Li. Far from cutting corners, So insisted on using the top printer in Hong Kong.

A new youth culture was emerging around the world in the early '70s. Hong Kong young people faced unique questions of self-identity, torn between their conservative Chinese families and intoxicating, anything goes Western mores. Hong Kong was fast becoming the premier gateway into Asia for Western business and Western culture.

Anonymity, confusion, and alienation reigned, and Breakthrough founders thought the traditional church too narrow in its response. They wanted to take up the social issues of the day. Young people needed to gain confidence in their cultural and spiritual identity and in their ability to solve problems, rather than be swept along by societal forces.

Affirming "Chinese-ness" (Chinese heritage and culture), Breakthrough sought to present a Christianity that included the cultural mandate for people to rule responsibly over all creation.

Breakthrough Magazine, first published in January 1974, was an immediate success. Sold by street vendors alongside hundreds of other publications, its fresh style and content soon opened other possibilities.

Intrigued by the magazine's content, a leading commercial radio station launched a Breakthrough on Air program. A professional counseling center began within a year. Multimedia shows, books, and other magazines followed. Thirty years later, most people in Hong Kong know of Breakthrough.

"Young people … think we are very healthy, upright people," Li says with a mischievous smile—well aware that such a description can be a left-handed compliment among youth.

Wherever you look in Hong Kong you see mountains and water, with little level ground in between. Geopolitics, similarly, has squeezed Hong Kong between the imperatives of international trade (as a British crown colony and free port for 150 years) and the imposing mass of China.

"Being raised in Hong Kong, there is always an identity crisis and an identity confusion," says Choi. He recalls singing "God Save the Queen" in school, and traveling as an officially "stateless" individual.

"When I studied in Canada," he says, "I discovered I was Chinese."

Breakthrough is not just interested in telling young people the gospel in a narrow sense. "We do a lot of evangelistic work," Choi says. "But we have to remind them, who are you? You are raised in Hong Kong, and part of China. Culture is the ground, the earth where you are raised, and the kind of person you are."

Ironically, in the early days, Breakthrough seemed very Western to people in Hong Kong. Many staff members had studied in North America, and their passion for creativity challenged Hong Kong's conservative Chinese ethos, with its high regard for tradition. Against that Western image, Breakthrough adopted the slogan "Rooted in Hong Kong."

It avoided partnerships with Western organizations—even some that would have provided much-needed financial resources. When success came, Breakthrough turned down invitations to spread its work outside Hong Kong. When many in Hong Kong sought to emigrate during an economic downturn in the '80s, Breakthrough purchased a high-rise building. Leaders wanted to demonstrate their intent to remain rooted.

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July 2003, Vol. 47, No. 7