Introduction

Introduction On Sunday, April 5, 1846, most residents of the city of Xiamen were busy visit- ing the graves of their forefathers. Some had returned to ancestral villages to participate in the filial rites associated with the annual Grave Sweeping Festival which was celebrated on this day. Others joined relatives in climbing the hills scattered throughout the small island, finding burial plots for deceased relatives. The graves were “swept” yearly, with weeds uprooted and repairs made, but in addition, ancestors would be memorialized by rituals such as burning incense and paper money and offering sacrificial foods. However, for the group of Chinese assembled at one storefront in Liaozaihou, a bustling area along the waterfront, just outside the walled city, rites of a different sort were being performed. Here, adjacent to the local Mazu temple, at a “chapel,” which in reality was simply a rented storefront decorated with a few ordinary bamboo benches, Sunday church services had been going on for over two years. By this time, average attendance at these services reached nearly 100 listeners.1 Similar services first started on the tiny island of Gulangyu, a short boat ride from Xiamen, in early 1842. But the service on this spring morning was different for it witnessed an event that had never taken place before in this part of China. On this morning, two elderly attendees, Wang Fugui 王福桂 and Liu Wenshe 刘温舍, became the first residents in the region to be baptized as Protestant Christians.2 The missionaries involved in this milestone did not seem to consider the importance of the date, but Wang, Liu, and the numerous other Chinese who crowded into the chapel surely recognized the significance of holding this momentous event on such an important day.3 It seems likely that the selection 1 Chinese Repository, (1846) 15, 160. 2 There was at least one Chinese Christian who came to Xiamen from Singapore prior to this first baptism. See Chris White, “Waves of Influence across the South Seas: Mutual Support between Protestants in Minnan and Southeast Asia,” Ching Feng (2012) 11.1. The exact birth dates of these two men are unknown, but we know Wang was seventy-five years old when he died on August 10, 1850 and Liu was over eighty when he died on November 1, 1858. Neither Wang nor Liu were natives of Xiamen, and thus could plausibly be excused for not taking part in the activities linked to their ancestor’s graves. The Chinese Repository (1846), 358, lists Liu’s name as 刘殷舍, but all other sources I have come across use 刘温舍. 3 Though the baptism of Wang and Liu is celebrated in numerous missionary writings for decades after the event, and the date is also often provided, it is virtually never connected to the Chinese holiday that was coincidentally observed on the same day. From the missionaries’ perspective, it was common practice in the West to hold baptismal services on Easter, but © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��7 | doi ��.��63/9789004339�70_00� 2 Introduction of this date was not simply coincidental, but considering the fact that mis- sion writings do not acknowledge the Chinese holiday held on the same day, it is plausible this date was chosen by Wang and Liu themselves.4 Such a sup- position corresponds with the perspective taken throughout this study, which highlights the agency of Minnan Protestants and how they publicly demon- strated their faith to those around them. This book looks at the lives of Chinese Protestants in Minnan, the term used to denote the southern half of Fujian Province, and demonstrates how such individuals fractured previous ties and constructed and then utilized new networks through the church. It argues that conversion to Christianity or church membership did not remove converts from their local situations and did not create, as one author puts it, “Chinese Uncle Toms.”5 Instead, Minnan Protestants laid claim to both their Christian faith and their Chinese cultural heritage. Non-traditional networks, like those formed through church connections, soon materialized and worked along lines similar to existing networks. Churches, because of the relationships established therein, served as nodes linking individuals, many of whom were previously unknown to each other, into larger Protestant communities. This research further highlights the social interactions experienced by Minnan Protestants and asks the question that, if converts did remain integral parts of Chinese social networks, how did their newfound faith or practices affect their lives? In other words, to what extent were Protestants able to function within their community and how were their church connections employed in such interactions? Dyadic ties, such as those formed between a convert and missionary, are found more readily in histori- cal sources, but the intermingling of a number of dyadic ties, such as between individual church members, or a network, are more interesting and useful Easter fell on the following Sunday in 1846. Not only was the date of this baptismal service the Grave Sweeping Festival, but it was also Palm Sunday. However, at this time, Christian holidays were not emphasized by missionaries in Minnan, so it is likely the Wang and Liu or any other attendee did not know of this coincidence. 4 Jonathan Seitz points out that Liang Fa 梁发, an early Christian convert from Guangdong, chose the specific time of twelve noon to be baptized. Liang’s biographer, George McNeur, speculates that this may have been the time of Liang’s birth or that possibly the convert chose this time because of St. Paul’s words, “Every good gift and every perfect present is from heaven, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, about whom there is no vari- ation of changing shadow” (James 1:17). George McNeur, Liang A Fa: China’s First Preacher, 1789–1855, introduced and annotated by Jonathan Seitz (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2013 [1934]), 27–28. 5 Nathan Faries, The “Inscrutably Chinese” Church: How Narratives and Nationalism Continue to Divide Christianity (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010), 117..

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