Bachelor's Thesis
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Arts China Studies Seminar Bachelor‘s Thesis 2017 Magdaléna Masláková MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Arts China Studies Seminar Thirty Years in Taiwan: The Case of Presbyterian Missionary George Leslie Mackay Bachelor‘s Thesis Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Bc. Denisa Hilbertová, M.A. Magdaléna Masláková Brno 2017 2 I hereby declare that the submitted thesis is the result of my own original independent work. All references have been properly cited and acknowledged. …………………………………………… The author Brno, May, 2017 3 Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to the supervisor Mgr. Bc. Denisa Hilbertová, M.A. as writing the thesis without her valuable advices and support wouldn’t be possible. I would also like to thank Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D., who has been providing me with his professional guidance and encouragement for several years. 4 Abstract The aim of the thesis is to analyze missionary efforts, strategies and difficulties of the first Canadian Presbyterian missionary in Taiwan, George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901), as evidenced in the text From Far Formosa: The Islands, Its People and Missions. The text is supposed to be written by Mackay himself, edited by rev. J.A. MacDonald and published in 1895. Similarly, as many foreign missionaries, also Mackay faced a problem of how to spread the Christian Gospel to Taiwan’s inhabitants. However, his situation was even more difficult, as he was the very first missionary in the northern part of Taiwan, and his goal was to establish Protestant church there. The thesis analyzes how was Christianity, a western religious system, established and adapted for a different eastern context. When George L. Mackay came to Taiwan in 1871, Taiwan was a prefecture of Fujian province under the rule of the Manchurian Qing dynasty (only latter it became province). He could enter the island because its ports were reopened for foreigners as a result of the Second Opium War (1856-1860). A current scholarly discussion draws attention to an impact of missionaries on Taiwanese society. Missionaries were recognized as those who introduced modernization to Taiwan. They often used contemporary western education and medical care to make the first contact with unchurched people. Mackay also used this means for evangelization. The historical-critical method is used to analyze particular missionary strategies referred to be used by Mackay; to explain difficulties of the mission; and to find who were converts and supporters of newly established local church. Subsequently, the thesis provides a comparative analysis of southern and northern mission in nineteen century Taiwan. Highlighting differences and similarities of these missions helps to understand uniqueness of Mackay’s missionary approach. For this purpose other primary sources, describing contemporary southern mission, are used – publications written by Thomas Barclay and William Campbell. The thesis aims to extend current state of knowledge about George L. Mackay, Presbyterian mission, as well as about an intercultural communication and a cross-cultural exchange between West and East. 5 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 5 1 The first Pioneers in Taiwan ................................................................................................. 10 1.1 Life of George Leslie MacKay in Short ........................................................................ 11 2 Theoretical Foundation and Methodology ............................................................................ 13 2.1 Primary Sources ............................................................................................................. 15 3 Missionary Strategies Used by MacKay ............................................................................... 15 3.1 Medical Mission ............................................................................................................ 15 3.2 Delegating Responsibility to Native Ministry ............................................................... 20 3.3 Regular Tours and Supervision ..................................................................................... 23 3.4 Strategies Excluded from MacKay’s Book ................................................................... 25 4 The Pattern of MacKay’s Stories .......................................................................................... 28 4.1 Stories of Conversion .................................................................................................... 29 4.2 Stories of Persecution and Martyrdom .......................................................................... 32 4.3 Money as the Reason ..................................................................................................... 35 5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 37 Resumé ..................................................................................................................................... 40 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 40 References ................................................................................................................................ 41 Primary sources ................................................................................................................... 41 Secondary sources ............................................................................................................... 41 6 Introduction The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyze missionary efforts, strategies and difficulties of the first Canadian Presbyterian missionary in Taiwan, George Leslie MacKay1 (1844-1901), as constructed in the text From Far Formosa: The Islands, Its People and Missions.2 As many other foreign missionaries, also MacKay faced the problem of how to spread the Christian Gospel to Taiwan’s inhabitants. However, his situation was even more difficult as he was the very first to establish Protestant church in northern Taiwan. During his life, George Leslie Mackay was very positively perceived in Taiwan as well as abroad. Nowadays, still, he is known as a folkhero in Taiwan. In contemporary narrative of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, MacKay is very often bound to introduction of democratic ideas and independence to Taiwan. He became one of symbols of Taiwanese nationalism.3 In the thesis, I analyze how Christianity was established and adapted for the specificities Taiwanese audience, which concrete problems was MacKay forced to face, what specific approaches he applied and what missionary strategies he implemented. Taking in account the fact that MacKay’s missionary patterns were very successful, as within thirty years of his operating in Taiwan he built sixty churches with about 200 000 converts,4 the question of a path to his results seems to be very interesting. Conversion to Christianity was a problem in northern Taiwan, as well as in other parts of Asia, because foreign Christian mission needed to face distinct culture and religion of local territory. Accepting foreign religious system could have violated norms of family life. Such a violation usually had a very negative impact on relations with other members of convert’s own family. For example, filial piety and ancestor worship are one of central values in Taiwan’s society, but both practices were rejected by Protestant church. Furthermore, missionaries as foreigners, excluded from understanding of local tradition, were separated from local culture.5 Family has a strong influence on possibility of conversion. For that reason, if somebody is interested in Christianity, but at the same time he is not supported by his own 1 In Chinese known as Xie Ruili 偕睿理 or Maxie 马偕. He is also often called as a black-bearded barbarian, Hei Xiufan 黑须番. 2 Formosa is a name for Taiwan used by Europeans. The word originally comes from Portuguese. It literally means “beautiful” and it refers to “Ilha Formosa” - "Beautiful Island". 3 ROHRER, James. The Legacy of George Leslie Mackay. International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 2010, vol. 34, n. 4, p. 220. 4 During 18th and 19th Century, Taiwanese population was approximately 3 milion. BENG, Huan-Sheng. When the East Meets the West : The Educational Career of George L. Mackay in Formosa 1872-1901. In The Asian Conference on Arts and Humanities 2012 : Official Conference Proceedings. Xinzhu : National Xinzhu University of Education, 2012, p. 314. 5 CHEN, Nan-Jou, Contextualizing Catholicity : A Taiwanese Theology of Identification. Asia Journal of Theology. 2003, vol. 17, p. 342. 7 family, it can easily lead to abandoning the church.6 Consequently, a temptation of joining the church must be much stronger than a fearof losing support of family. We must not forget, that the message of Gospel was not the only important factor of conversion.7 Missionaries often cared about other problems to meet the needs of Christians and future converts. Missionaries used several specific strategies to gain more success. For this research, these strategies of one particular missionary are analyzed. Despite many difficulties, mission of George Leslie MacKay was very successful. For that reason, observing which strategies were employed by the missionary is very important. This