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WINTER 2019 VOL. 21, NO. 4 ChinaSource Quarterly A Song in the Night Chinese Christian Art as Sower, Sustainer, and Disseminator of a Faith Immured BJ Arthur, Guest Editor About ChinaSource For the past 20 years, ChinaSource has been a trusted platform facilitating the flow of critical knowledge and leading-edge research among the Christian communities inside China and around the world and engaging them in collaborating to serve the Chinese church and society. As China continues to grow and change, the church in China is doing the same. With over 100 years of collective China-ministry experience, the ChinaSource team is strategically positioned to help bring knowledge, clarity, and insight to groups engaging with China. Content ChinaSource’s content is aimed at providing reliable, balanced, and relevant information to those who serve China. All of ChinaSource’s content resources can be found on the website: www.chinasource.org Partnerships ChinaSource’s partnerships are aimed at playing a catalytic role in bringing together the right people, asking the right questions, and influencing Christian thinking about China. We partner with individuals, organizations, churches, and interested groups who share our vision to see China's Christians engage the society inside and outside of China as they contribute to and influence the global church conversation for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Training/Consulting Under the ChinaSource Institute, ChinaSource provides its training/consulting services packaged in a variety of products and services that are easily accessible to a wide audience. A full list of our offerings can be found on our website: www.chinasource.org Engagement ChinaSource is committed to actively engaging with China in order to better connect and amplify the voice of Christians in China. We hope to act as a conversational bridge between the church in China and the global church. Whenever and wherever the church in China is being talked about, ChinaSource aims to be part of the discussion. This is primarily done via our network of Chinese Christians, conferences, research, events, and through media. www.chinasource.org To access embedded links to resources and other related articles, please go to the online version of this ChinaSource Quarterly (bit.ly/a-song-in-the-night). Cover image courtesy of Chinese Christian Posters (ccposters.com/poster/two-ways-2/). A Song in the Night: Chinese Christian Art as Sower, Sustainer, and Disseminator of a Faith Immured ChinaSource Quarterly Winter 2019, Vol. 21, No. 4 In this issue . Editorial Art—a Pathway to the Heart, Soul, and Mind Page 2 BJ Arthur Articles Contemporary Chinese Art and Christianity Page 3 Clover Zhou and John Camden Contemporary Chinese Christian artists have grown out of historical relationships between Chinese culture, contempo- rary art, and Christianity. This article looks as these three factors to help us understand contemporary Chinese Chris- tian art. “The Spirit in Fire and Wind”: An Opportunity for Silent Artists to Converse Page 6 BJ Arthur In the spring of 2019, ten of China’s highly respected Christian artists gathered at Purdue University to freely display and discuss their work with each other and a fascinated public. Only now is art being encouraged in the church, but this connectedness of art and faith is providing a refuge for artists in this increasingly difficult time. Spreading the Gospel with Christian Propaganda Posters Page 8 Daryl Ireland The author brings to our attention Christian propaganda posters, intentionally used in China between 1927 and 1951, aimed at toppling China’s ideological systems. They provide a view of what Chinese Christians believed about their faith, and how they believed Christ could transform China. Singing from Underground to the World: Listening to the Music of Contemporary Chinese Christianity Page 12 XU Song-Zan (徐颂赞 ) This article looks at the development of Chinese hymns and spiritual songs, along with some examples, during recent periods of Chinese history. These provide insight into the hearts of Chinese Christians during both the difficult days and today’s contemporary church. When Will Messiah Return . to Beijing? Page 16 BJ Arthur In 2001, Handel’s Messiah was performed in Beijing’s Forbidden City conducted by Timothy Su Wenxing (苏文星 ), a Christian. When he took the podium, he displayed a public manifestation of faith seldom seen in the PRC. When will Handel’s Messiah again be performed in China? Book Review In Drawing Plain People, He Draws the Face of God Page 18 Soul and Beauty by Fan Xuede Reviewed by Ah Qian (阿浅) Using a conversation format, the life experiences and oil painting of Yang Feiyun, head of the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, are explored. Resource Corner In God We Trust: Contemporary Chinese Christian Art Page 21 By Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky; co-curated by Dazi with an essay by Wang Yun This brochure, from an exhibit held at Bard College (Annandale on the Hudson, NY) in September 2011, is an introduc- tion to contemporary Chinese art. Editorial Art—a Pathway to the Heart, Soul, and Mind By BJ Arthur “Jesus replied: ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” Matthew 22:37 A very perceptive young Chinese, Sun Yong, made the follow- ing observation in the preface to an anthology of three novels written by up-and-coming contemporary Chinese authors: The world’s understanding of China is still very cursory in my view. It knows little of China’s rich minds and how a sea change of social reforms has impacted Chinese mentality and feelings for the simple reason that the Chinese language is too difficult for many Westerners, and talents capable of trans- lating Chinese literature into English are hard to come by. Yet, Western thinking is not alien to the Chinese because China has translated a large volume of Western literature and history books over the last 100 years and several generations of Chinese have studied and entered the inner worlds of West- erners through these works. We are publishing English versions of excellent Chinese novels in an attempt to change the situation. Their stories . can help Western readers enter the inner minds of the Chinese more easily.1 This issue of the China Source Quarterly offers an opportunity to understand some of those rich, creative Chinese minds, as well as the impact of one of those social reforms taking place in Chinese contemporary society—the explo- sion of Christian belief. “Chinese Contemporary Art and Christianity” by Clover Zhou and John Camden offers insight into the complex rela- tionship between three cultural heritages: Chinese ancient and revolutionary history, contemporary art, and Christi- anity. “The Spirit in Fire and Wind: An Opportunity for Silent Artists to Converse” describes a unique opportunity at Purdue University for Chinese artists to gather and share their work with one another, with reviewers, and with the general public. Daryl Ireland provides fascinating insight into the early use of art and propaganda by the Religious Tract Society in “Spreading the Gospel with Christian Propaganda Posters.” XU Song-Zan reveals his passion for praise music in “Singing from Underground to the World: Listening to the Music of Contemporary Chinese Christiani- ty.” On a more somber note, “When Will Messiah Return . to Beijing?” reviews the history of the public perfor- mance of the Messiah oratorio in China and the illustrious career of conductor Su Wenxing. These are discussed in light of the current government’s prohibition of the performance of Messiah in any public venue. Regarding Fan Xuede’s Soul and Beauty, the reviewer, Ah Qian, notes Fan’s tribute to his teacher and the work of the Holy Spirit in artistic creation: “With his paint brushes blessed by the Holy Spirit, Teacher Yang ‘seeks and dis- plays godly nature in humanity.’”2 Available in this issue’s Resource Corner, In God We Trust: Contemporary Chinese Christian Art is an information-packed pamphlet, which introduces and analyzes the work of fourteen prominent Christian artists who participated in an art show at New York’s Bard College in 2011. Sun Yong, that perceptive young person mentioned above, introduced three novels, one written by Bei Cun. First gaining fame as an avant-garde author, Bei Cun became one of the very few prominent Chinese artists to give a bold statement of coming to faith: “At 8:00 in the evening on March 10, 1992, I received the leading of God and entered an old broken-down building in Xiamen. In that place I saw some people, some people who lived in a world above our own. God chose me.”3 God is choosing to use contemporary, Chinese Christian artists to further his work of growing his church in China. May they and their nation be blessed for his glory. ____________________ 1 Bei Cun, Xu Yigua, Li Er, Stories from Contemporary China. Preface by Sun Yong, translated by Wu Yanting, Wu Xiaozhen, Hu Lingque (New York: Better Link Press, 2010), preface. 2 Ah Qian, 他画朴实的人,画出神的样子, “In Drawing Plain People, He Draws the Face of God,” Sohu.com, January 3, 2018 at http://www.sohu.com/a/214647965_661949. 3 Bei Cun, Xu Yigua, Li Er, Contemporary China, preface. B. J. Arthur (pseudonym) has lived in China for many years and was in Beijing in June 1989. 2 Contemporary Chinese Art and Christianity By Clover Zhou and John Camden Contemporary Chinese Christian artists are the unique product of three cul- tural heritages, each with a complicated relationship and history with the others. One stream is comprised of Chinese culture, both traditional and rev- olutionary. This cultural heritage has a storied history of tension with the other two inherited traditions, namely contemporary art and Christianity.