The History of Chinese American Protestantism

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The History of Chinese American Protestantism

• Asian American Christianity
• Timothy Tseng
• Logos Evangelical Seminary Jan. 17, 2006

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Chinese American Church History From Ecumenical
to Evangelical
3
Significance of the Diasporic Context in the 19th
Century

• The Chinese Diaspora early commerce and labor in
  Southeast Asia.
• Opium War (1839-1842) opening up Euro-American
  entry and use of Chinese labor for Colonial
  projects (e.g. Chinese in SE Asia, the Americas,
  India, and South Africa).

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Significance of the Diasporic Context in the 19th
Century

• C. Missionary tenacity and complicity.
• D. Rise of Chinese Christian nationalism (took
  anti-Ching turn at end of century).
• Taiping Rebellion (1850-64)
• Revolutionary Republicanism (1895-1911)
• Ecumenical elitism (1925-1949)

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The 19th Century Context in the USA

• A. First missions in 1850s Presbyterian,
  Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist,
  Episcopalian, Roman Catholic
• B. American racial discrimination against the
  Chinese - served two purposes
• to protect labor unions (labor unions chose not
  to work with Chinese)
• to create White Nation unite European ethnics
  into Whiteness. See Alexander Saxton, The
  Indispensable Enemy Labor and the Anti-Chinese
  Movement in California (1971)

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The 19th Century Context in the USA

• C. Chinese partnership with Protestants to fight
  discrimination.
• William Speers defending the Chinese against
  Miners Tax law in California and other
  discriminatory legislation.
• Ecumenical Lobby against Chinese Exclusion
  (1892).
• Numerous challenges to naturalization and
  immigration laws ironically resulted in the
  formation of the Immigration and Naturalization
  Bureau and its power to deport without due
  process.

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Facing anti-Chinese discrimination

• Responding to racism in North America
• 1860 Chinese not permitted to naturalize
• 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
• 1892, 1902 Exclusion renewed
• Segregation from schools, work, and public life.
• Anti-Chinese violence

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Facing anti-Chinese discrimination
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Chinese American Christians at turn of the Century

• D. Bachelor society church equivalent to
  religious-political fraternities inspired by
  Buddhism and Taoism. But changing!

New York Chinese Baptist Church, 1920s
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Ecumenism in 20th Century China

• Birth of ecumenism in China. Missionaries
  discovered that they had to work together.
  Anti-Chinese Exclusion work in 1892 was an
  example.
• Rise of theological liberalism and the social
  gospel in the US and China. Not identical, but
  were closely associated. Growing numbers of
  Chinese who came to the U.S. to get training.
• Formation of theologically moderate-liberal
  Chinese Christian elite in China. Y. T. Wu.

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Chinese Ecumenism in early 20th Century USA

• Ecumenical and Civic Evangelicalism among the
  Chinese Christians in the United States
• 1. Nationalism and Civic Evangelicalism

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• True of Chinese Christians in China and the
  Chinese Diaspora.
• Chinese Christians were more radical than Kang Yu
  Weis (1858-1927) Reformist Baohuang Hui (or
  Protect the Emperor Society). Kang worked for
  constitutional monarchy. Chinese Christians
  advocated a republican democracy.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Sun Yat-sens (1866-1925) network in the Diaspora
  and North America were all Christians, who were
  chief supporters of the Tongmeng Hui.
• it was mostly from the church that I learned the
  truth of revolution. The establishment of the
  Republic today is due, not to my efforts, but to
  the service of the church.
• Sun Yat-sen, Tsung-Li chüan-shu (Complete works
  of the President), 12 vols. (Taipei The Central
  Committee of the Kuomintang, 1956), p. 7A, 144
  trans. Chester C. Tan in his Chinese Political
  Thought in the Twentieth Century (Newton Abbot
  David Charles, 1971), p. 150.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Sun Yat-sens (1866-1925) network in the Diaspora
  and North America.
• Presbyterian minister, Ng Poon Chew (Wu Panzhao,
  1866-1931), founding editor of the Chung Sai Yat
  Po, (China-West Daily) was one of the strongest
  advocates of Chinese Republicanism and Chinese
  American civil rights.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Evangelical Proto-Nationalism (pre-1900)
• Sermon of Jee Gam (1880)
• And by faith I venture to say right here that
  China will, before long, become a Christian
  country, and rank high when compared with all her
  sister nations

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Evangelical Proto-Nationalism (pre-1900)
• Hong Sing, a Christian student
• It is not China that is old and weak, but our
  heathen customs of worshipping ancestors and
  buying luck at the shrine of Joss, etc., etc.
  Put the doctrine of Christ into these and it will
  burst them certainly but put it into China, and
  it will make her stronger and fairer than ever

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Evangelical Proto-Nationalism (pre-1900)
• Hong Sing
• It is not China that is old and weak, but our
  heathen customs of worshipping ancestors and
  buying luck at the shrine of Joss, etc., etc.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Evangelical Proto-Nationalism (pre-1900)
• Hong Sing
• It is not China that is old and weak, but our
  heathen customs of worshipping ancestors and
  buying luck at the shrine of Joss, etc., etc.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Progressive Protestantism and Revolutionary
  Politics, 1900-1919
• Chung Sai Yat Po (1908)
• The Christian teaching brings the idea of a
  republican form of government such as we find in
  the United States and in some parts of Europe. .
  .The people make their own laws. Both high and
  low have common rights. . . The Chinese wish very
  much that they had the republican form of
  government to-day, but they have not learned and
  do not understand it, so how can we legislate
  laws? . . . Are we going to continue to have a
  monarchy? Monarchies will never bring prosperity
  and freedom.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Before the May Fourth Movement of 1919, Chinese
  religious nationalism drew from Western cultural,
  political, and religious sources for the sake of
  equality in the United States and national
  salvation overseas.
• No self-denigration appears among any of the
  Chinese Protestants of this period. Rather,
  Chinese Protestants was remarkably similar to the
  leaders of the May Fourth Movement a decade
  later. It, too, opposed Chinese culture out of
  love for the Chinese nation.
• Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese
  Revolution, 1915-1949 (Stanford Stanford
  University Press, 1971), p. 42.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• In the 1920s, Chinese Protestants were forced to
  choose between identifying themselves as
  anti-imperialist nationalists or as the lackeys
  of foreign oppression.
• What had changed for Chinese Protestants was a
  decisive rejection of the earlier desires to
  emulate the Euro-American model.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• An Angry Resurgence Chinese Protestants in the
  1920s
• In 1925, Dr. Mabel Lee of the Chinese Baptist
  mission in New York City was still able to
  declare that Christianity is the salvation of
  China despite being deeply wronged by various
  governments.
• Dr. Mabel Lee, daughter of Rev. Lee To, the
  pastor of the Chinese Baptist mission in New York
  and one time president of New Yorks Consolidated
  Chinese Benevolent Association, completed her
  doctorate at Columbia in 1922 before assuming her
  fathers mantle at the mission. A close friend of
  Hu Shih, she also associated with future
  Kuomingtang leaders such as H. H. Kung. Mabel
  Lee Circular letter (addressees unknown), 3 July
  1925. Letter located in the First Chinese
  Baptist Church, New York City.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism
Dr. Mabel Lee
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Chinese Christian Nationalism
Rev. Lee To
Womans Group
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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• An Angry Resurgence Chinese Protestants in the
  1920s
• One young Chinese Protestant declared to his
  missionary teacher,
• China must have Christianity, but it must be its
  own Christianity, not what some one else thinks.
• From Ocean to Ocean, 1926-27 (Womans American
  Baptist Mission Society, 1927), p. 212

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• An Angry Resurgence Chinese Protestants in the
  1920s
• Charles Shepherd
• The Chinese in the United States have naturally
  become interested in the affairs in China to the
  point of absorption and obsession... With the
  exception of a small minority, their attitude
  toward Christianity ranges from cold, placid,
  indifference to aggressive hatred and opposition.
  Their objection and animosity is not to
  Christianity per se, but as practised by
  so-called Christian nations.
• American Baptist Home Mission Society 1927
  Annual Report, 37.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Chinese Protestants in the 1930s
• In 1932, retired NY Presby Pastor Huie Kin
• Inspite sic of her present sorrows and
  difficulties . . . my faith in Chinas future
  remains unshaken...since the opening of the
  Century, which marked the birth of the modern era
  in our country, I see China marching steadily
  forward in the fundamental things which pertain
  to a nations real greatness, - education,
  agricultural and economic improvement,
  communications, public health, municipal reform,
  growing strength of public opinion through an
  enlightened press, and the new national life
  symbolized in the Nanking Government.
• Huie Kin, Reminiscences, p. 112. Throughout his
  career, he identified Protestantism with modern
  civilization and appropriated both towards
  nationalistic ends, see pages 51, 53-54.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Chinese Protestants in the 1930s
• Japanese incursion stimulated stronger Chinese
  nationalism

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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Commonalities and Differences
• Very diverse responses some sided with
  conservative Guomindong, others worked side by
  side with Communist organizers. Madame Chiang and
  Cora Deng. How did Christians become so prominent
  as leaders? Christian schools, foreign students,
  merchant class became wealthy. But all wanted
  modern and strong China.

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Chinese Christian Nationalism
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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Commonalities and Difference

Cora Deng (1900-1996) 96.7.8 (ANS) Cora Deng
(Deng Yuzhi), the long-time General Secretary of
the Chinese YWCA, passed away in Shanghai after a
long illness on October 1, 1996. Ms. Deng was
born in 1900, and received a degree in sociology
from Ginling Women's College in 1926. After
working for the YWCA in Shanghai for several
years, she went on to further her studies at the
London School of Economics, and later received a
master's degree from the State University of New
York. In 1932, Ms. Deng spent several months in
Geneva at the International Labor Bureau,
researching women's and children's issues.
Madame Chiang
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Chinese Christian Nationalismafter 1949
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Chinese Christian Nationalism

• Post-1949 Nationalism

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Chinese American Christianity after WW2 From
Ecumenical to Evangelical

• A. Ecumenical and Civic Evangelicalism in the
  U.S.
• 1. Nationalism and Civic Evangelicalism
• 2. Asian Survey (1920s) sociological
  construction of assimilation.
• 3. 1920s - 1960s Protestants fought against
  Chinese (Asian) Exclusion.

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Chinese American Christianity after WW2 From
Ecumenical to Evangelical

• A. Ecumenical Civic Evangelicalism
• National Conference of Chinese Churches - CONFAB
  (f. 1955)
• Edwar Lee (1902-1996)
• Asian American Caucus movements (1970s)
• PACTS (f. 1972)
• Return to Chinese cultural roots

Rev. Dr. James Chuck
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Chinese American Christianity after WW2 From
Ecumenical to Evangelical

• B. Revivalism in 20th Century China
• 1. Birth of revivalism in China. Holiness and
  Pentecostal missionaries related well to
  indigenous Chinese popular religion. Shangtung
  revivals in 1906 YMCA revivals in 1910s, Bethel
  Mission revivals (1930s-40s).
• 2. Separatist spirit inherited in part from
  American missionaries but part of Chinese
  popular religious impulse to be freed of state.

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Chinese American Christianity after WW2 From
Ecumenical to Evangelical

• The Communist victory

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Chinese American Church History From Ecumenical
to Evangelical

• C. The Communist victory
• 1. Mainline Protestant missionary work deflated.
• 2. Mainline Protestants focus on ministry of
  racial integration
• 3. Mainline Chinese Protestants lose momentum
  but in America, they attempted to organize
  CONFAB
• 4. Diaspora Chinese (refugees to Hong Kong,
  Taiwan, SE Asia) growth of Evangelicals. Came to
  U.S.

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Chinese American Christianity after WW2 From
Ecumenical to Evangelical

• D. Separatist Chinese evangelicalism in North
  America
• 1. Conflicts with mainline Chinese churches (eg.
  Peter Shih v. Andrew Tan in Boston)
• 2. Church Planting (English and Chinese speaking)
• 3. National mobilization NACOCE, CCCOWE.
• 4. Diversity American Born (issues of
  assimilation and racialization)

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Impact of Chinese Christian Separatism

• Provided spiritual resources for the alienated
  and marginalized Chinese in China and the
  Diaspora.
• Strengthened Christian identity in contrast to
  liberal tradition.
• Powerful indigenous leaders (Andrew Gih,
  Christiana Tsai, Torrey Shih, Moses Chow, Thomas
  Wang, Sen Wong, etc.)
• Laid the foundation for the renewal of Chinese
  Christianity.