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Explaining Christianity in China: Why a Foreign Religion Has Taken Root in Unfertile Ground

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ABSTRACT Explaining Christianity in China: Why a Foreign Religion has Taken Root in Unfertile Ground Xiuhua Wang, M.A. Mentor: Paul Froese. Ph.D. Chinese Christians are growing rapidly, yet their exact number remains controversial. Christian growth is somewhat surprising given that China is inhospitable to Christianity. First, the state closely regulates religious activity, making it difficult for religious groups to recruit members. Second, Chinese religious history is dominated by traditional religions venerating ancestors, only to be replaced by state-sponsored atheism; it is unclear how Christianity would find cultural inroads here. This paper seeks to establish the probable range of Christians and their growing trajectory. Additionally, I identify the regions where Christianity is most popular and test some hypotheses about why these areas are more conducive to a Western monotheism. I conclude that huge labor emigration, along with lower commitment to ancestral worship, have created a cultural space for Christianity in China. In particular, Christianity grows among a network of women who have lost their ritual ties to the past and the patriarchal hierarchies. Explaining Christianity in China: Why a Foreign Religion has Taken Root in Unfertile Ground by Xiuhua Wang, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Approved by the Department of Sociology Charles M. Tolbert II, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee Paul Froese, Ph.D., Chairperson Lindsay Wilkinson, Ph.D. Rodney Stark, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2015 J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2015 by Xiuhua Wang All rights reserved CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... 1 CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................................iv TABLE ............................................................................................................................................. v FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER ONE............................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO .............................................................................................................................. 3 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER THREE .......................................................................................................................... 6 Supply-side dynamics: 1918 to 2007............................................................................................ 6 CHAPTER FOUR .......................................................................................................................... 12 Chinese Christianity by Province ............................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................................ 17 Multiple Modernities: the unintended consequences of Chinese modernization ....................... 17 CHAPTER SIX .............................................................................................................................. 24 Local Processes: Anhui and Henan Provinces ........................................................................... 24 CHAPTER SEVEN ........................................................................................................................ 31 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 31 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 32 iv TABLES Table 1 Number of Christian in China—Survey and Estimation ......................... 10 Table 2 Percentage of Christianity in Province, 1918-2009 ................................. 15 Table 3 Regression of Christian Rate in 2009 ...................................................... 21 Table 4 Logistic Regression on Christian Beliefs and Behaviors (Anhui Data) .. 28 Table 5 Logistic Regression on Christian Belief and Behaviors (Henan Data) ... 29 v FIGURES Figure 1 Longitudinal Percentage of Christians in China ..................................... 11 Figure 2 Provincial Christian Rate Sorted By Region .......................................... 16 Figure 3 Christianity Rate in Anhui and Henan Province .................................... 27 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people and institution have contributed greatly to the formation of this paper. First and foremost, my debt to Professor Fengtian Zheng and Rongping Ruan at Renmin University of China is most obvious. Were it not for their strict training and well- intentioned guidance, I would never have paid attention to the spiritual and religious life of Chinese society. Indeed, they provided me with great opportunities to do field work across China and with their data on religion in China. I am also extremely grateful to Dr. Rodney Stark for his wonderful guidance and support during my stay at Baylor University. While researching in Christianity rise in China under his guidance, I not only learned academic knowledge and methodology from him, but also saw his great passion for research, his insightful way of raising good questions and talent in organizing the materials. Moreover, his generous support in both material and emotion helped me go through the darkest period of my life. I have no way to pay for all these debts but to go further in my research. I am also deeply appreciative of the help and guidance from Dr. Paul. Froese. As my supervisor, Paul listened to my ideas carefully, forced me to think further by challenging me with great questions, discussed every detail of this paper over and over again with me, and finally revised my bad writing for me. Without the work from Paul, I would never make it a good paper. Finally I want to acknowledge the helpful comments from Professor Fenggang Yang. Based on his expertise on Religion in China, he pointed out several potential vii mistakes I made while writing. I also feel thankful to Lindsay Wilkinson. As my thesis committee member, she offered me great comments on the thesis. viii CHAPTER ONE Introduction Christianity is growing in China with a marked increase in the past 20 to 30 years. This development is unexpected for reasons which span opposing theoretical perspectives. The facts that levels of Christianity were rudimentary in China 100 years ago and that China has undergone dramatic stages of modernization in the intervening years should predict a complete lack of interest in Christianity, from both normative and demand-side theoretical perspectives. Supply-side expectations should predict a similar outcome, given that the Communist state actively limits religious freedom and supports traditional and atheist alternatives to Christianity. In sum, Christianity is expanding in a society where it theoretically should not. Yet both demand-side and supply-side perspectives offer potential reasons why Chinese Christian growth belies initial expectations based on the huge social change in China. To begin with, the activities of early Christian missionaries laid the seeds for subsequent growth. The Chinese Revolution diminished these early gains only to open up larger cultural space for Christian growth as the government modernized China. This is the great irony of my analysis; namely, a state bent on modernizing and secularizing its population produced both the demand for modern religion and the social networks to supply this demand. This is not to say that China’s religious regulation and modernization policies have not tempered religious growth in the country as a whole. But in certain regions these 1 policies have created unintended and unexpected consequences. Specifically, regions where labor emigration of males is high have offered new roles for women, one of which is the autonomy to make religious choices. This combined with a decline in ancestor worship, due to increases in modernization, has led many women to investigate Christian spirituality. In turn, these women convert their families and communities. 2 CHAPTER TWO Literature Review The rise of Christianity in China is complex and has developed over many stages. In order to comprehend the multiple factors which have contributed to Christian growth, we must draw from a variety of theoretical sources. The simplest way to categorize these sources is to break them down into demand-side and supply-side perspectives. The supply-side perspective encourages us to focus on three important factors to explain religious growth. First and most obviously, religious entrepreneurs
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