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Western Missionary Influence on the People's Republic of China: A Survey of Chinese Scholarly Opinion between 1980 and 1990

For most of the twentieth century, Chinese scholars viewed Christianity as superstition, a movement that was obsolete and destined to become extinct with the progress of socialism worldwide. Moreover, it was seen as part and parcel of the Western imperialist onslaught on China, an expression of cultural imperialism, But in recent years the impact of Christianity in China has received serious new consideration by Chinese scholars. Within the parameters of Chinese history itself, as described below by Professors Shen Dingping and Zhu Weifang, the contributions of Christian missions, especially in the realm of education, medicine, and social services, have been given much fairer treatment. Christianity is now viewed by many scholars not as antithetical but as complementary to modern Chinese culture. In the current debate by Chinese intellectuals over appropriate values in the wake of the collapse of the credibility of Marxism, scholarly discussion of both the historical record of Christian missions in China and the relevance of Christianity to contemporary Chinese culture has flourished. There is a growing sense that the historical"success" of Western society is bound up closely with Christianity and that features of Western history, society, and culture in the past few hundred years, such as growth of a civil society, the rule of law, and the public consciousness that makes for a better society, are due to the role of Christianity. Whether this view is correct or not, the point is that Christianity is drawing the attention of an increasing number of scholars and intellectuals. Some of these intellectuals, who are not necessarily believers themselves but who think that Christianity has much to offer Chinese society, are called culture Christians (generally not by themselves). A rough index to the volume of publications concerning Christianity in China is contained in a book published in Shanghai in 1994 by Professor Zhu Weijing entitled (in translation) Christianity and Modern Culture. It contains a listing of books and articles published between 1949 and 1993 in China on Christianity; of the nearly 1,800 titles listed, the great majority were published after 1980. In 1997 Christian Culture Review (in Chinese), issue number 6, edited by Liu Xiaofeng and He Guanghu, carried a survey of scholarship of the mid-1990s on the role of Christianity in China. As the following article makes clear, there is a great deal of scholarly activity in this field in China, more than most would have suspected. -Daniel H. Bays, Professor of History, University of Kansas, editor, Christianity in China, from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996)