Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China, 1857-1927

by Ryan Dunch

• ISBN13: 9780300080506
• ISBN10: 0300080506
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2001-04-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In this groundbreaking examination of Chinese Protestants and their place in the history of modern China, Ryan Dunch focuses on the Fuzhou area of southeast China from the mid-nineteenth century until 1927, when a national revolutionary government was established. Though accounting for only a small proportion of the population, Protestants occupied a central place in Fuzhou's political, intellectual, and social life, Dunch contends. He shows how Chinese Protestants, with a distinctive vision for constituting China as a modern nation-state, contributed to the dissolution of the imperial regime, enjoyed unprecedented popularity following the 1911 revolution, and then saw their dreams for social and political change dashed.

Dunch draws on previously untapped Chinese-language sources and on mission archives and publications to understand how Chinese Protestants saw themselves and to situate them within local Chinese society. He explores how the missionary presence diffused not only religion but also notions of nationalism and identity and models of political ritu

Author Biography

Ryan Dunch is assistant professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Note on Sources and Terms	xiii
Introduction	xv
Protestant Christianity in the Chinese Context	1	(47)
Protestant, Professional, Progressive	48	(32)
``Welcoming a New China'': Protestants in Late Qing Politics	80	(32)
Protestants and the Symbols of Nationalism	112	(36)
Kingdom Come? The Protestant Heyday in Fuzhou, 1912-1922	148	(30)
Why China Did Not Become a Christian Republic	178	(25)
Notes	203	(44)
Glossary	247	(16)
Bibliography	263	(22)
Index	285