To the outside world, China is a country without religion. Thanks to Mao’s purge of the established faiths, worship became illegal in the PRC. However, since the reforms and opening of the 1970s, religious tolerance has increased, leading to a swelling of the official congregation numbers for the main monotheistic faiths, as well as Buddhism and Daoism. Christianity in particular has grown in popularity.

A population on the fringe

Generally speaking, it isn’t easy being a Christian in China. Luo Wei, who turned to Jesus about six years ago when he was at university in Shandong Province says, “Unfortunately, I feel that I need to keep quiet about my faith because Christians are still persecuted here. I attend a house church, not one of the official worship places, so there’s a risk that I will be caught and punished.”

Source: economist.com

Christians like Luo Wei practise their faith in home churches – underground congregations that meet in members’ homes, mostly in rural areas – but others toe the line and attend official services and government approved worship halls. State-controlled Christianity in China is overseen by several associations. The China Christian Council was established in 1980 and governs Protestantism, publishing Bibles and hymn-books and overseeing official churches. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement also governs the Protestant sector. Catholicism is administrated by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association that was set up in 1957 by the Religious Affairs Bureau of the PRC. The Communist Party refuses to recognise the Pope as the supreme head of the Catholic Church because he is the leader of a foreign state, causing diplomatic tension between China and the Vatican. The current Pope has denounced the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

For Christians that don’t wish to be a part of the official churches (either because of the Pope’s denunciation or the very fact of state control), one alternative is house churches. Another is the Free Church movement that is flourishing in cities and urban areas, attracting more affluent congregations. Free Churches are similar to house churches in that they operate outside of the official bodies, but are less secretive. Meeting in office blocks instead of underground, they challenge the authorities and refuse to co-operate with the government. Most prominent is the Zion Church in Beijing led by Jin Mingri, a pastor who studied at the Fuller Theological Seminary in the USA. Mass migration from rural areas into the cities means a growth in the Free Church movement.

It is unclear exactly how many practising Christians there are in China. Many are reluctant to make themselves known in surveys and censuses due to the risk of persecution, so the official figures are skewed. In the year 2000, the PRC announced that there were four million Catholics and 10 million Protestants, a figure that had risen to 10m and 20m respectively by 2003. Editor-in-chief of the Economist John Micklethwait’s estimate is 12 million Catholics and 65 million Protestants – hugely inflated from the official numbers.

A turbulent history and promising future?

Christianity in China is not a new phenomenon. It is unclear exactly when the faith came to the Mainland, but historical records report the arrival of Alopen, a Nestorian monk from Syria, in the 7th century. Catholic missionaries arrived throughout the Ming Dynasty, the most famous of which was Matteo Ricci, who ingratiated himself with the Emperor. The Jesuits established a centre of worship in Shanghai’s Xujiahui (then known as Zikkawei) and built the twin-spired St. Ignatius Cathedral, as well as the basilica on Sheshan in Songjiang. The first Protestant Missionary was Robert Morrison, and pockets of Christian Orthodoxy flourished in Harbin thanks to Russian influence. The Cultural Revolution ended organised Christianity, making it illegal along with all other religions. Despite growing tolerance in recent years, the Communist Party is still suspicious of any movement that could be viewed as a cult. The Shouter Movement (brought over from the USA in the 1960s by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee) was banned in the 1990s, when its evangelical and apocalyptical dogma was deemed cultish.

Source: yeschinatour.com

History bears witness to the modern geographical spread of Christian worship. There is a strong tradition of Christianity in Hebei Province thanks to the sighting of the Virgin Mary (thereafter known as Our Lady of China) in the town of Donglü in 1900. Although the government has banned pilgrimages to the site in recent years, religious fervor is still strong. Henan Province also has pockets of Christian practise thanks to the work of a Presbyterian from Canada between 1888 and 1925. It was in Hebei that Bishop Li Hongye was arrested in 2001, and thousands of house church members were taken for questioning by the police in 2004.

Modern Chinese Christians turn to the faith for many reasons, most interesting of which is weariness with the materialism of the modern PRC. Shanghainese Lu Jing became a Christian after becoming disillusioned with the rampant capitalism she witnessed daily. “For me, being a Christian is about renouncing the excesses of modern life, and striving for a simpler existence. Lack of religion has made many people greedy and thoughtless, and I want something different from that. Also, in a world that is so uncertain now, it’s comforting to have something to believe in.”
 

Related links
On a Wing and a Prayer: Christian Worship in Beijing
The Evangelicals: Sharing the Christian Faith in China
The Art of Getting Lucky: Superstition in China

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Keywords: Christianity in China rise of Christian faith in China house churches in China being a Christian in China