Mixed Media & Globalizing Faith in Chinese Christianities

As Wang Changzhi (1899-1960), a Jesuit priest from Shanghai’s Catholic mission in Xujiahui, was preparing to leave France to return to China in December 1936, he entrusted the promotion of his newly published book, La philosophie morale de Wang Yangming (Geuthner, 1936) to Gaston Fessard (1897-1978), a longtime friend from the Jesuit Theologate in Lyon-Fourvière, then associate editor of the Jesuit journal Recherches de sciences religieuses and author of Pax Nostra (1936).  From that time until Wang’s death on December 28, 1960, Wang Changzhi and Gaston Fessard maintained their brotherly connection as Wang lived through war and exile a continent away. Their correspondence, partly lost or misplaced, nevertheless sheds light on the ways Chinese Catholic theologians interacted with their counterparts in Europe. This paper complements and enriches previous research on Wang Changzhi (Translingual Catholics, 2025) and analyzes the letters that Wang wrote to Fessard which have recently become accessible.

This paper analyses the monthly Chinese Anglican periodical, Sheng Kung Hui Bao (SKHB), from its first issue in January 1908 to 1913, the year after Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (CHSKH) was established. These publications are unique primary sources for Chinese Christianity and Anglicanism in the early twentieth century. Few, if any, studies have been devoted to these primary texts. This study was made possible by the access granted by Hong Kong SKH Archives.

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This paper focuses on the Chinese Anglican voices reflected in SKHB in 1908-1913, making three arguments. First, the local Anglicans displayed a cautious confidence in Anglicanism – “confident” of its historical and theological root yet “cautious” of intra-Anglican and inter-denominational conflicts. Second, the Chinese voice for an independent Chinese church was amplified by a shockingly harsh rhetoric against “immature” Chinese Anglicans. Third, the Boxer Uprising and the enthusiasm towards Constitutionalism unmistakably shaped the development of CHSKH.

In 1958, a campaign known as the "Unification of Worship" echo to the “Great Leap Forward”, abruptly became a central task for regional Three-Self Patriotic Movement committees committees. During this movement, churches were closed, denominations were abolished, and the organizational functions of denominational institutions were swiftly absorbed by regional Three-Self Patriotic Movement committees, which was regarded as a way of "decolonization." During this campaign, nearly 90% of churches were removed. This study seeks to provide a comprehensive quantitative assessment of “the Unification of Worship” across different city types and denominational backgrounds, and evaluate its long-term impact on Chinese Christianity, offering new insights into the relationship between religious policy and church distribution.

Music is one of the most dominant artistic media in evangelicalism. Today, prominent theological resources of Chinese Christianity come from evangelicalism. Singing gospel songs together in the weekly Sunday congregation is a common religious practice in evangelical communities worldwide and in protestant church communities in the Chinese sphere and Chinese diaspora. This paper discusses this religious practice, looking into the case of the Netherlands. The author explores the transnational aspect of the Sinicization and dissemination of CCM, and its effect on community building in a culturally and linguistically new environment. Building on a mixed methodology the study seeks to answer the following: What is the role of music in the social cohesion of these church communitas? How do linguistic differences within the community affect the role of hymns singing as a religious practice? How does CCM with Chinese characteristics play a part in the dynamic of “homemaking” for Dutch Chinese?