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Abstract
This article traces the emergence of political and legal activism among China’s Protestant elites since the turn of the twenty-first century. It explores the work and the writings of several contemporary public intellectuals and activists who have discovered in their newfound Protestant faith a sacred ground upon which they stand in opposition to the arbitrary powers of the Party-state. Other liberals such as Liu Xiaobo also see Christianity as offering guidance for both democratization and moral regeneration of Chinese society—a theme that echoes many Chinese intellectuals’ response to Christianity at the birth of the Republic a century earlier.
Two early versions of this article were presented respectively at a conference at Duke Divinity School in March 2011 and at a Chinese Religions Seminar at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University in October 2011. In both cases, comments from the audience, especially the critique of Professor Robert Weller, helped me wrestle with the problem of the fluidity of the “Cultural Christians” phenomenon. I wish to thank Professor Carol Lee Hamrin, who did an insightful and meticulous peer review of the anonymized manuscript of this article and provided valuable comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Professor G. J. Barker-Benfield, whose observations helped me trim the manuscript.
Notes
1 The epigraph is from Joseph. R. Levenson, Confucian China and its Modern Fate: The Problem of Intellectual Continuity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958), 117. Fredrik Fällman, Salvation and Modernity: Intellectuals and Faith in Contemporary China (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2008), 26–27; Zhuo Xinping, “Discussion on ‘Cultural Christians’ in China,” in China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future, ed. by Stephen Uhalley, Jr. and Xiaoxin Wu (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001), 283.
2 Chen Kuide, “Jinnian lai Zhongguo wenhua sichao yanbian (Changes in Chinese Cultural Trends in Recent Years)”, Zhongguo yanjiu (China Study), 35 (May 1998), posted at <http://blog.boxun.com/sixiang/ 000408/8.htm>. According to Chen, the other main strands are post-modernism (and other “post-isms”), Islamic socialism, cultural conservatism, and liberalism. Chen wrote: “当代对于中国文化最强有力的影响者和竞争者，无疑是基督教文化[…].通过研究基督教，有不少华人知识分子正在深入挖掘并弘扬中国文化中的超越性层面。这是为中国文化’招魂’乃至’立魂’的大事 [In contemporary China, what has constituted the most powerful influence on and competitor for Chinese culture is undoubtedly Christian culture …. Through their study of Christianity, many Chinese intellectuals are exploring and promoting the transcendent side of Chinese culture. This is a major undertaking aimed at ‘calling back the spirit’ or even ‘establishing the spirit’ of Chinese culture].”
3 See Fällman, Salvation and Modernity, 25–28; Yu Jie, interviews with Wang Zhiyong in Herndon, VA, September, 2010, <http://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/28715/201102/30089.html>; Zhuo Xinping, “Discussion on ‘Cultural Christians’ in China,” 288–95; Ka Lun Leung (Liang Jialin), “Cultural Christians and Christianity in China,” China Rights Forum, 4 (2003), 30–31.
4 See Lian Xi, Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010). For a fine overview of Chinese intellectuals’ limited acceptance of Christianity in the early twentieth century, see Xu Zhenglin, “Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yu Jidujiao wenhua (Modern Chinese Literature and Christian Culture)”, Wenxue pinglun (Literary Criticism), 2 (1999).
5 Carol Lee Hamrin, “Conclusion: New Trends under Deng Xiaoping and His Successors,” in China’s Intellectuals and the State: In Search of a New Relationship, ed. by Merle Goldman, Timothy Cheek, and Carol Lee Hamrin (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 277, 285.
6 Timothy Cheek, “From Priests to Professionals: Intellectuals and the State under the CCP,” in Popular Protest and Political Culture in Modern China: Learning from 1989, ed. by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Elizabeth J. Perry (Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 1992), 125.
7 Ibid.
8 There is a significant body of works on this general development. Wang Hui notes, for instance, that the process of marketization, professionalization, and institutionalization of intellectual life “gradually effected a fundamental change in the role of the intellectual. Basically, 1980s intellectuals were gradually transformed into experts, scholars, and professionals.” See Wang Hui, “Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity,” trans. by Rebecca E. Karl, in Whither China: Intellectual Politics in Contemporary China, ed. by Xudong Zhang (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001), 162. Xudong Zhang puts it more bluntly. “The universalistic high culture of humanism and modernism has fallen,” he writes. “The philosophical discourses of modernity have died out, and the intellectual elite in the human sciences that formed during the 1980s [...] has virtually collapsed.” See Xudong Zhang, “Nationalism, Mass Culture, and Intellectual Strategies in Post-Tiananmen China,” in Whither China, 316. In his Disenchanted Democracy: Chinese Cultural Criticism after 1989 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), Ben Xu writes, “The intellectuals’ sense of being marginalized is aggravated by their disillusion with politically engaged, especially pro-democracy, cultural criticism” (3). See also Suzanne Ogden, “From Patronage to Profits: The Changing Relationship of Chinese Intellectuals with the Party-state,” in Chinese Intellectuals between State and Market, ed. by Edward Gu and Merle Goldman (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).
9 Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-fan Lee, eds., An Intellectual History of Modern China (Cambridge University Press, 2002), 8.
10 Wang Hui, “Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity,” 173.
11 On the subject of “the Way of the Ruler and the Minister” and “noble failure,” see excellent and succinct discussions in John E. Wills, Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), xiii–xiv, 177–79.
12 Ron MacMillan, “House Church Struggles with New Converts,” Christianity Today (August 20, 1990). See also Tony Lambert, The Resurrection of the Chinese Church (Wheaton, IL: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1994), 234–35; Daniel H. Bays, “Chinese Protestant Christianity Today,” in Religion in China Today, ed. by Daniel L. Overmyer (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 192–94. However, in the months that followed, those who turned to the Church for inspiration were often disillusioned by its shunning of political activism.
13 Fällman, Salvation and Modernity, 24.
14 Jidian, “‘Gonggong zhishi fenzi’ yu ‘Jidutu zhishi fenzi’ (‘Public intellectuals’ and ‘Christian intellectuals’),” December 9, 2004, <http://zaiyezhimin.bokee.com/1393321.html>.
15 Bays, “Chinese Protestant Christianity Today,” 193–94.
16 Zhang Min, “Fang ‘Zongjiao Ziyou Jiang’ dezhu Fan Yafeng: xinling de ziyou (Spiritual Freedom: An Interview with Fan Yafeng, Recipient of the Religious Liberty Award),” Ziyou Yazhou diantai (Radio Free Asia), April 15, 2010; Gongfa pinglun wang (Public Law Review Net), <http://www.gongfa.org/; http://gongfa.org/home.shtml>. The term “hanyu shenxue” has often been translated, inaccurately in my view, as “Sino-theology.”
17 Ren Bumei, “Wo kangyi! (I protest!),” Da jiyuan (Epoch Times), June 8, 2003, <http://www12.epochtimes.com/gb/3/6/8/n325580.htm>; Jidian, “Jingshen kunjing yu jingshen chulu: du Ren Bumei dixiong de wenzhang yougan (Spiritual Dilemma and the Spiritual Way Out: Reflections on Brother Ren Bumei’s Articles),” <http://www.godoor.net/whjdt/jd-rbm.htm>.
18 Wang Yi, Yu shen qinzui (Kissing God on the Lips) (Chengdu: Chengdu shengyue gongyi tushushi [church publication], 2009), 331–32.
19 Liu Xiaobo, “Wo yu hulianwang (The Internet and I),” February 14, 2006, Liu Xiaobo wenxuan (Collected Writings of Liu Xiaobo), Duli Zhongwen Bihui (Independent Chinese Pen Center), posted at <http://blog.boxun.com/hero/liuxb/513_1.shtml>.
20 See Zhonghua shenxue (Chinese theology) website, <http://www.cntheology.org>.
21 See Duli Zhongwen Bihui website, <http://chinesepen.org/Index.shtml>; “Duli Zhongwen Bihui zai Meiguo zao qisu (Independent Chinese Pen Center Facing Charges in America),” <http://www.boxun.com/hero/200801/2008/2_2.shtml>.
22 Tiananmen Mothers, “Xiangei ‘Liusi’ datusha de sinan wangling: ‘Liusi’ can’an ershiyi nian ji (Dedicated to the Spirits of the Victims of June 4th Massacre: A Memorial on the Twenty-First Anniversary of June 4th Massacre),” Tiananmen muqin (Tiananmen Mothers), June 1, 2010, <http://www.tiananmenmother.org/tiananmenmother/21%20years/m100601001.htm>; Liu Xiaobo, “Tiananmen muqin de qishi: ‘Liusi’ shijiu nian ji (Revelations from Tiananmen Mothers: A Memorial on the Nineteenth Anniversary of June 4th),” May 21, 2008, <http://indymediacn.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-post.html>.
23 “Cai Zhuohua an yu Zhongguo de zongjiao ziyou (The Cai Zhuohua Case and Religious Freedom in China),” Ziyou Yazhou Diantai (Radio Free Asia), July 27, 2005,<http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/zhuanlan/zhongguotoushi/caizuohua-20050727.html>; “Chinese House Church Leader Cai Zhuohua Released,” Open Doors, <http://www.opendoorsca.org/content/view/253/139/>. See also Zhang Min, “Fang ‘Zongjiao Ziyou Jiang’ dezhu Fan Yafeng: xinling de ziyou.”
24 Ji Shuoming, Wang Jianmin, “Zhongguo weiquan lüshi fazhi xianfeng (Chinese Rights Lawyers: Pioneers for the Rule of Law),” Yazhou zhoukan (Asia Newsweek), December 25, 2005, <http://www.yzzk.com/cfm/Content_Archive.cfm?Channel = ae&Path = 2179987442/52ae1a.cfm>. The three Christians were: Gao Zhisheng, Li Baiguang, and Fan Yafeng.
25 “Zhongguo Jidutu Weiquan Lüshituan chengli gonggao (Announcement of the Founding of Christian Human Rights Lawyers of China),” January 2006, <http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2006/01/200601211151.shtml>.
26 Yu Jie, “Zhongguo xinyang de fuxing yu Zhongmei liangguo de ‘huadi weiyou’: zai Meiguo Zhongyiyuan de yanjiang (Religious Revival in China and “Turning Foes into Friends” between China and America: A Speech at the U.S. House of Representatives),” September 25, 2007, <http://www.boxun.com/hero/200808/jinbiao/37_1.shtml>; Tony Carnes, “China’s New Legal Eagles: Evangelical lawyers spur civil rights movement forward,” Christianity Today , September 18, 2006.
27 Carnes, “China’s New Legal Eagles.”
28 Ibid.; Zhongguo Jidujiao Jiating Jiaohui Lianhehui and Zhongguo Jidutu Weiquan Lüshituan, Jidutu weiquan shouce (Rights Protection Handbook for Christians), <http://ishare.iask.sina.com.cn/f/10627380.html>.
29 “‘Zhongguo zongjiao yu shenhui gaofeng luntan’ zhuanti yantao zhiyi: ‘Zhongguo Jidujiao Jiating Jiaohui de xianzhuang he weilai (‘Chinese Religion and Society Summit Forum’ Special Topic Discussion: The Current State and the Future of Chinese Christian House Churches),” Symposium, Beijing, October 8, 2008, <http://www.purdue.edu/crcs/itemProjects/chineseVersion/beijingSummitC/transcriptsC/jianrongYuC.html>. It is likely that Gao’s findings mostly applied to urban house churches.
30 Ning Xuan, “Zhenguang zhaoliang le women (The True Light Has Shone into Us),” Zhenlibao (The Truth), March, 2009, <http://www.douban.com/note/27727170/>.
31 Yu Jie, “Zhi ‘jingcha duzhe’ de gongkaixin: Tiananmen zhi zi zixu (An Open Letter to My ‘Police Readers’: Foreword for A Son of Tiananmen),” <http://deliverpub.blogspot.com/2007/01/blog-post_23.html>.
32 Yu Jie, “Women shi yizuo qiaoliang: lun Zhongguo Jidutu zhishifenzi de wenhua shiming (We Are a Bridge: On the Cultural Mission of Chinese Christian Intellectuals),” January, 2008, Yu Jie wenji (Collected Writings of Yu Jie), Duli Zhongwen Bihui (Independent Chinese Pen Center), <http://blog.boxun.com/hero/200802/yujie/1_2.shtml>; <http://boxun.com/hero/200802/yujie/1_1.shtml>. It is in fact quite common for Chinese Protestant intellectuals to attribute Western democracy to the Bible. Yuan Zhiming, who helped produce River Elegy (Heshang) in the 1980s, reflected in a 2012 interview with Ian Johnson: “River Elegy’s conclusion was that the solution for China was democracy and human rights. But it was only when I got to the West that I realized that the root of this was Christianity. It was the Bible. It creates something more important than rights given by a constitution or a government. It creates God-given rights—endowed by our creator.” Ian Johnson, “Jesus vs. Mao? An Interview with Yuan Zhiming,” “NYRblog: Roving thoughts and provocations from our writers,” The New York Review of Books, September 4, 2012, <http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/sep/04/jesus-vs-mao-interview-yuan-zhiming/>.
33 Yu Jie, “Zhongguo xinyang de fuxing yu Zhongmei liangguo de ‘huadi weiyou.’”
34 Hans Küng, On Being a Christian, trans. by Edward Quinn (Doubleday, 1976), 29.
35 Liu Xiaobo, “Zai richang shenghuo zhong jujue shuohuang: Yu Jie wenji xu (Refusing to Tell Lies in Our Daily Life: A Foreword for Collected Writings of Yu Jie),” June 24, 2002, <http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/books/1/12542.shtml>.
36 Wang Hui, “Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity,” 173.
37 Chen Kuide, “Bilu lanlü, yiqi shanlin (Driving a Cart in Ragged Clothes to Blaze a New Trail)” (Foreword written for Liu Xiaobo, Weilai de ziyou Zhongguo zai minjian (Civil Awakening: the Dawn of a Free China), Washington, DC: Laogai Research Foundation, 2005), 13.
38 Liu Xiaobo, “Tiechuang zhong de gandong: yuzhong du Lun Jidutu (Being Moved While Behind Bars: Reading On Being a Christian in Prison),” January 9, 1997, Liu Xiaobo wenxuan (Selected Writings of Liu Xiaobo), <www.boxun.com/hero/200809/liuxb/2_1.shtml>.
39 Liu Xiaobo, “Fangzhou Jiaohui fankang Zhonggong jingcha de qishi (Revelations from Fangzhou Church’s Resistance to Chinese Communist Party’s Police),” January 16, 2006, <http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/1/20/n1197051.htm>.
40 Yu Jie, “Zhongguo xinyang de fuxing yu Zhongmei liangguo de ‘huadi weiyou.’”
41 Fan Yafeng, “Cong jiaohui weiquan dao Zhongdao weiquan moshi (From ‘Rights Defense’ in Churches to the Middle-of-the-Way Approach to Rights Defense),” March 14, 2010, <http://www.gongfa.org/html/gongfazhuanti/minquanyuweiquan/20100314/1004.html>.
42 “Weiquan lüshi weihe cheng gaowei shizong zu (Why Rights Lawyers Became High-Risk Disappearance Group),” Aboluo xinwenwang (Apollo News), April 4, 2011, <http://www.aboluowang.com/news/2011/0404/-122185.html>. See also the webpage of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group at <http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?page_id = 6>.
43 See, for instance, “Liu Fenggang wei fangmin ban Fuyinban jin bei Beijing jingfang zuzhi (Liu Fenggang Taught Gospel Classes for Petitioners; Beijing Police Stopped Him Today),” July 25, 2012, <http://boxun.com/news/gb/china/2012/07/201207252159.shtml>.
44 Jim Hoagland, “A Chinese Dissident’s Faith,” The Washington Post, May 28, 2006; Joshua Lee,“Fang Baigong Jidutu Yu Jie, Wang Yi ping’an fanhui Beijing (Yu Jie and Wang Yi, Christians Who Visited the White House, Return Safely to Beijing),” Jidu ribao (Gospel Herald), May 18, 2006, <http://gospelherald.com>.
45 “Dr. Fan Yafeng Honored with the 2009 John Leland Religious Liberty Award,” China Aid, April 15, 2010, <http://www.chinaaid.org/2010/04/dr-fan-yafeng-honored-with-2009-john.html>.
46 Teng Biao, “Yong weixiao lai miandui naxie zhizhao kongju de ren: he Gao Zhisheng zai yiqi de yige xiawu (The One Who Faces Terror-Makers with Smiles: An Afternoon with Gao Zhisheng),” November 24, 2005, Teng Biao wenji (Collected Writings of Teng Biao), Duli Zhongwen Bihui (Independent Chinese Pen Center), <http://www.boxun.com/hero/tengb/44_1.shtml>.
47 “Gao Zhisheng wenji jijiang mianshi: Shen yu women bingjian zuozhan chuban yuanqi (Collected Writings of Gao Zhisheng Soon to be Published: The Story behind the Publication of God Is Fighting Shoulder to Shoulder with Us),” Da jiyuan (Epoch Times), March 24, 2006, <http://hk.epochtimes.com/6/3/24/20468.htm>. The English translation of the book, published in 2007 by Broad Press, Inc. in the United States, adopted a different title: A China More Just: My Fight as a Rights Lawyer in the World’s Largest Communist State.
48 Notes of Yu Jie’s meeting with President Bush, posted online on May 12, 2006, <http://jesus.bbs.net/bbs/01/104903.html?mode = 4>.
49 See Lian Xi, “Western Protestant Missions and Modern Chinese Nationalist Dreams,” East Asian History, 32/33 (December, 2006/June, 2007), 206–07.
50 See Lian Xi, Redeemed by Fire, 119.
51 Lu Xun, “Moluo shili shuo (On the Power of Mara Poetry),” 1907, in Lu Xun, Lu Xun quanji (Complete Works of Lu Xun) (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2005), 102–03.
52 Chen Tu-seu (Chen Duxiu), “Jidujiao yu Zhongguo ren (Christianity and the Chinese People),” trans. by Y. Y. Tsu, Chinese Recorder, 51 (July, 1920), 454–55.
53 Xu Zhenglin, “Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yu Jidujiao wenhua (Modern Chinese Literature and Christian Culture),” Wenxue pinglun (Literary Criticism), 2 (1999), 126–29.
54 See Chen Duxiu, “Jidujiao yu Jidujiaohui (Christianity and the Christian Church),” Xianqu (The Pioneer), 4 (March 15, 1922).
55 John King Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, 1800–1985 (HarperPerennial, 1987), 287–88.
56 This remains the case despite occasional protestations to the contrary. Liu Xiaofeng, in his self-consciousness of the intellectuals’ mentality of “saving the country,” insisted that he had no intention to “save China” through Christianity. See Liu Xiaofeng, Zouxiang shizijia shang de zhen: ershi shiji Jidujiao shenxue yinlun (Towards the Truth on the Cross: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Christian Theology) (Shanghai: Shanghai sanlian shudian, 1995), 2. On the other hand, as Fällman points out, Liu did not actually rid himself of that mentality. See Fällman, Salvation and Modernity, 51–53.
57 Tony Carnes, “China’s New Legal Eagles: Evangelical lawyers spur civil rights movement forward,” Christianity Today, September 18, 2006. According to that report, “When Yu was arrested in 2003 for drafting a freedom-of-religion statement, 20 million people registered their support for him online.”
58 “Zhongguo yingdi Wen Jaibao huojiang; Dalu wangyou reyi (China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao Wins Prize; Netizens in Mainland China Make Heated Comments),” May 17, 2011, <http://boxun.com/news/gb/china/2011/05/201105170537.shtml>; “Jinshu xuandu (Selected Banned Books),” Deutsche Welle, <http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,5919737,00.html>. See also Yu Jie, Hexie dadi Hu Jintao—ta rang Zhongguo shiqu le shinian (Hu Jintao, Emperor of the River Crabs: He Made China Lose Ten Years) (Hong Kong: Chenzhong shuju, 2012).
59 Andrew Jacobs, “Family Visits Rights Lawyer Held in China,” New York Times, March 28, 2012.See also the “Free Gao” website (<http://www.freegao.com/2011/01/gaos-story.html#more>) for fuller coverage of the Gao Zhisheng story.
60 Edward Wong, “From Virginia Suburb, a Dissident Chinese Writer Continues His Mission,” New York Times, February 25, 2012; Zhongguo Weiquan Lüshi Guanzhu Zu (China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group), “Zhongguo zhengfu jinggong zhi niao; lianfan daya weiquan lüshi. Guanzhu Zu biaoshi qianglie kangyi (‘A Bird Startled by a Bowshot’: Chinese Government Intensifies Crackdowns on Human Rights Lawyers),” November 10, 2010, <http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?cat = 16>; see also <http://www.chinaaid.org/2011/02/tang-jitian-jiang-tianyong-and-teng.html?utm_source = BP_recent>.
61 See Yu Jie, “Zhao yipian Jidutu gonggong zhishifenzi de tiankong (Seeking an Open Space for Christian Public Intellectuals),” Shidai luntan (Christian Times), 970 (April 2, 2006), <http://boxun.com/hero/2007/yujie/86_1.shtml>.
62 Wang Yi, Yu shen qinzui (Kissing God on the Lips) (Chendu: Chendu Shengyue Gongyi Tushushi [church publication], 2009).
64 See Gerda Wielander, “Bridging the Gap? An Investigation of Beijing Intellectual House Church Activities and Their Implications for China’s Democratization,” Journal of Contemporary China, 18·62 (November 2009), 864.
65 See Teresa Wright, “Intellectuals and the Politics of Protest: The Case of the China Democratic Party,” in Chinese Intellectuals Between State and Market, ed. by Edward Gu and Merle Goldman (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lian Xi
Lian Xi is Professor of History at Hanover College and author of Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China (2010) and The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American Protestant Missions in China, 1907–1932 (1997).