Mark Lance Bedwell (born June 11, 1987) is an American expatriate living in Beijing, China and currently teaches at TimeEdu in the Wangjing community. He was an assistant librarian at the Rebecca Horton Library from 2006 until December 2011.

Bedwell was born in Zachary, Louisiana at Lane Memorial Hospital, to Brett Lee Bedwell and Debora Ranine Bedwell.

Mark was a middle child, between two older sisters, Rebecca and Rachel, and younger siblings, Debora and Matthew. Bedwell grew up alienated from his Christian family, developing his own worldview.

In Bedwell's teenage years, he was forced to go to church, but remained skeptical of organized religion until his college years at PCC. While studying in an American Modern Literature class, he concluded after reading William Carlos Williams' poem The Red Wheelbarrow that most people have an urge to place proof of their existence in something, and Mark decided to place proof of his existence in the Bible.

Growing up in Slaughter, Louisiana, Mark attended Grace Christian School. In 2000, he moved to Washington, Illinois, where he attended and graduated from Illinois Central Christian School. He attended Illinois Central College for two years while still a high school student and Pensacola Christian Collage for seven years; he graduated with a baccalaureate in arts from PCC in 2011.

As a Christian, Mark's main influences were the biblical characters Jesus, Isaiah, and Satan. While pursuing religion, Mark developed a sympathetic view of Christ. A view where God actually sees Satan as a form of prodigal son loving him, waiting for him, and giving him chances to repent. He developed this view after reading John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost and wrote a term paper presenting Milton's Satan as type of Epic Hero and Byronic Hero.

In Louisiana, Mark was aware of racism at a young age not only in his community but also in his all-white church. His family, however, had different views and taught him that all people "were created equal" as human beings.

In college, Mark noted a profound dislike among the Korean and Chinese students towards the Japanese. Upon arriving in China and teaching in a Korean Hagwon (Korean: 학원), he noticed the same dislike among several of the young Korean children in class and later in many Chinese people as evident in the mass Chinese anti-Japanese protests.^[1]

Realizing that an extreme nationalism in a form of elitism is becoming increasingly prevalent today, Mark has set to point out the dangers that come along it--primarily, political stabilization in Asia.

Category:Living people