I take the position in the debate that the people against the use of pictoral material in the teaching of religion are in a conspiracy with the Chinese Communist party to force the Chinese people into using Pin Yin ~ (a latin alphabet type of sound/character system).
Only then will these people allow the Chinese the use of the Bible or to follow Christianity.
Because of my background I was once asked to give a presentation to a Bible Study group on the signs and symbols in Christian art. I started out by holding up the Hangul word for "Stop" and asked how many people in the room knew what it meant. Not a hand went up. When I presented the same word in white letters on a red octagon, and asked how many people understood the meaning, every hand went up.
My whole point was that visual symbols can communicate powerful meanings to even the illiterate, and indeed up until the time of Gutenberg and for a while afterwards, much of what the faithful knew of their faith came from sermons greatly enhanced by sculpture, painting, stained glass, etc.
There's a fascinating little passage in the movie The Mission, when Jeremy Irons's character meets up with the Guarani Indians. One of the few items he has to instruct the natives is a small painting of a Madonna and Christ child.