Bøger i Studies in Christianity in China serien

The memoirs of Sister Ying Mulan describe her experiences as a Chinese Christian living in a turbulent era marked by the Communist takeover, the Cultural Revolution, and many momentous political reforms. Born into a family of politically active Catholics, Ying Mulan was eventually imprisoned in Shanghai and later sent to serve in labor camps for over twenty years. While living through such difficult circumstances, Ying Mulan derived strength from her faith. At the age of 60, she became a religious sister, and twenty-five years later she decided to write her autobiography. In this book, Francis Morgan offers the first English translation of Sr. Ying's memoirs, providing explanatory notes based on historical research and a series of extensive interviews with Sr. Ying. As she recounts the trials that she and others endured, Sr. Ying speaks with a remarkable tone of gratitude, giving thanks to God for the tests that steeled her character, tempered her pride, and increased her compassion. While her work stands out as a modern spiritual autobiography, it also deserves recognition as a political text. Sr. Ying's memoirs offer valuable and rare insights into the realities of religious life in China, the hidden world of labor camps and prisons, and the extremes of Cultural Revolution.

Western missionaries in China often considered themselves "voluntary exiles" in a distant land, while Chinese considered Christians either the demons of imperialism or the angels of modernization. This collection of new research provides insights into attempts to bridge the social and religious divide that separated China and the West, and serves as an artful and captivating history of how missionaries and native Christians confronted the sometimes violent antagonisms caused by cultural and linguistic difference.

The historical analysis, theological reflections, and sociological observations found in the chapters of Christian Social Activism and the Rule of Law in Chinese Societies reveal the vibrant influence of Christian individuals and groups on social, political, and legal activism in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and diasporic communities.

This is the first full-length study of the medical ministries of Kang Cheng and Shi Meiyu, who graduated from the medical school at the University of Michigan in 1896 and then ran dispensaries, hospitals, and nursing schools in China from the 1890s to the 1930s. Known in English-speaking countries as Drs. Ida Kahn and Mary Stone, they were well-known both in China and in the United States in the early twentieth century, but today have largely been forgotten. This book gives readers today the chance to know these fascinating women, whose stories shed light on many aspects of U.S.-China relations. At its broadest level, this study contributes to the development of a transnational women's history, deepening our understanding of how ideas about women have traveled across national boundaries.

Freedom of religious belief is guaranteed under the constitution of the People's Republic of China, but the degree to which this freedom is able to be exercised remains a highly controversial issue. Much scholarly attention has been given to persecuted underground groups such as Falungong, but one area that remains largely unexplored is the relationship between officially registered churches and the communist government. This study investigates the history of one such official church, Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai. This church was founded by American Methodist missionaries. By the time of the 1949 revolution, it was the largest Protestant church in East Asia, running seven day a week programs. As a case study of one individual church, operating from an historical (rather than theological) perspective, this study examines the experience of people at this church against the backdrop of the turbulent politics of the Mao and Deng eras. It asks and seeks to answer questions such as: were the people at the church pleased to see the foreign missionaries leave? Were people forced to sign the so-called ';Christian manifesto'? Once the church doors were closed in 1966, did worshippers go underground? Why was this particular church especially chosen to be the first re-opened in Shanghai in 1979? What explanations are there for its phenomenal growth since then? A considerable proportion of the data for this study is drawn from Chinese language sources, including interviews, personal correspondence, statistics, internal church documents and archives, many of which have never previously been published or accessed by foreign researchers. The main focus of this study is on the period from 1949 to 1989, a period in which the church experienced many ups and downs, restrictions and limitations. The Mao era, in particular, remains one of the least understood and seldom written about periods in the history of Christianity in China. This study therefore makes a significant contribution to our evolving understanding of the delicate balancing act between compromise, co-operation and compliance that categorises church-state relations in modern China.

While previous works on the history of Christianity in China have largely centered on the scientific and philosophical areas of Catholic missions in the Middle Kingdom, Chinas Saints recounts the history of Christian martyrdom, precipitated as it was by cultural antagonisms and misunderstanding. Anthony Clark shows that Christianity in China began and grew under similar circumstances to those during the Roman Empire, with the notable exception that Catholic missionaries were not successful at producing a Chinese Constantine. One of the principal results of Catholic martyrdom in China was the increased indigenization of Christianity. During the reconstruction of mission churches, hospitals, and orphanages after the hostilities of the Boxer Uprising (18981900), the Roman Catholic tradition of venerating martyrs was attached to the reinvigoration of Christian communities. Not only did Catholic architecture accommodate to Chinese sensibilities, but causes for sainthood were also begun at the Vatican to add Chinese names to the Churchs list of saints. The implications of Clarks work extend beyond the subject of Christianity in China to the broader fields of cultural, social, economic, political, and religious history. This pioneering study follows the trails of Western missionaries and Chinese converts as they negotiate the religious and cultural chasms that existed between the West and China, and it demonstrates that these differences resulted in two very different outcomes. Whereas converts appear to have bridged the cultural divide, often to the point of self-sacrifice, political and cultural tensions on the macro level sometimes ended with forceful conflicts. This book contributes to a deeper understanding of cultural and religious interaction, and provides an account of an heretofore unstudied chapter in the history of Christianity on the global landscape.

Foreign Exchange: Counterculture behind the Walls of St. Hilda's School for Girls, 1929-1937 is the story of Yeh Yuanshuang and Dorothea Kingsley Wakeman and their experiences at the American missionary school. Founded in 1875, the school that would become St. Hilda's School for Girls was intended to provide a strong, Christian education for its students. Daily student-teacher interactions, however, created an environment that allowed for a foreign exchange which led to the creation of a new culture that subverted both American and Chinese gender constructs. The walls that surrounded the St. Hilda's compound not only served to protect the school from outside danger, but to also create a space where new gender expectations could be nurtured away from the gaze of prying eyes. Thus, the American teachers as well as the Chinese students were acculturated and socialized in ways that liberated them from their respective patriarchal situations. For Dorothea, serving as a teacher allowed her to remain single yet still be engaged in a professional career that would not be as socially stigmatizing as it would be if she remained at home. As a teacher at St. Hilda's, not only was she educating a future generation of Chinese women, but as an independent woman who served in an important position, she was an example for the girls at St. Hilda's what women could do when given an education. For Yuanshuang, her education provide her with the means to aspire to roles outside the culturally prescribed positions as daughter, wife, and mother by giving her the intellectual tools that enabled her to find work as a teacher at the start of the War of Resistance against the Japanese. Her involvement in school activities developed self-reliance, independence, and leadership skills that served her both in China and eventually in the United States. Her education socialized her to American values and customs so that when she arrived in the United States, she was able to adapt readily. Yuanshuang and Dorothea's stories also reveal the impact of the modern world on their parents' generation. Dramatic changes in both the United States and China provided cracks in the patriarchal walls of their respective countries, and book discusses the responses by their respective families to these changes. Judith Liu weaves together interviews of not only Yuanshuang and Dorothea, but also of St. Hilda's teachers and students, never-before published letters Dorothea wrote to her parents, and extensive archival research to tell their stories as well as the history of St. Hilda's. This book will be of interest to not only to scholars in Asian Studies, history, religious studies, gender studies, and those who teach ethnographic research methods but also to any reader who wishes to know more about China and the United States during that period of time.

This collection of letters provides a detailed eyewitness account of the Japanese conquest and occupation of central China in 1937-1938, as seen from Hangzhou by a Protestant missionary. As an American neutral, the author offers unique perspectives on the dilemmas of faith and partisanship, that the Sino-Japanese conflict posed.

Western missionaries in China often considered themselves "voluntary exiles" in a distant land, while Chinese considered Christians either the demons of imperialism or the angels of modernization. This collection of new research provides insights into attempts to bridge the social and religious divide that separated China and the West, and serves as an artful and captivating history of how missionaries and native Christians confronted the sometimes violent antagonisms caused by cultural and linguistic difference.

This collection of letters provides a detailed eyewitness account of the Japanese conquest and occupation of central China in 1937-1938, as seen from Hangzhou by a Protestant missionary. As an American neutral, the author offers unique perspectives on the dilemmas of faith and partisanship, that the Sino-Japanese conflict posed.

This collection reveals the life and work of pioneer Chinese Christian women, who have until now been largely invisible. The essays illustrate how gender affected their understanding of Christianity and career choices.

Rev. George D. Byers, Presbyterian missionary at Kachek, Hainan island, China, was murdered by bandits in 1924. Based on American and British consular archives and those of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and members of the Hainan mission, this is the story of how Mrs. Byers and Mrs. Mabel Roys got the government and their church to take action.