It's been a while since the last post, and we can put the blame square on Facebook. As many of you have already found out, blogs are SO OVER and social networking sites have taken over with the ability to post bulletins or notes. It really does take a lot less effort to use Facebook or Myspace, or even the accursed Twitter. However, I thought I'd try and revive the blog with some topical stuff that has a little more to do with East Asia and a little less with us and our lives. So, from now on, if you're looking to keep up with us and our doings, please continue talking with us on Facebook and Myspace. The focus of this blog is going to hopefully become more academic and allow me to arrange my thoughts as I study. That said, I'll try not to put anyone to sleep.
I've just finished Christians in China, A.D. 600 to 2000 by Jean-Pierre Charbonnier, a comprehensive history of missionaries and of the Chinese faithful over the last 1400 years. The book was written in 2000, which according to the Catholic Church was the Jubilee Year. It was also the year that marked the canonization of over 100 Chinese martyrs by Pope John Paul II. What made the timing of this book's publication even more significant to Christians was that it coincided with strengthened ties among Catholics and Protestants and their various counterparts in China, who had previously been forced underground or made to participate in patriotic organizations that denounced the Pope and other foreign elements. In all, this mostly Catholic-centered history gives a broad account of the lives of missionaries and ethnic Chinese in mainland China, while also touching on the lives of those in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia.
While not a Christian myself, I can not deny the value of the contributions of early explorers and missionaries in China to our contemporary understanding of Chinese language, history and culture in the West. For instance, the ubiquitous term for Northern China's major dialect, 'Mandarin', is thought to come from the Portuguese verb, mandar, which means to rule, and describes the job of the Chinese scholar-officials with which they had numerous interactions. Matteo Ricci, a very talented man from the Jesuit order, took upon himself to master the Chinese language and, with the aid of others, developed his own Romanized version of a Chinese phonetic system. Aside from this, Ricci also attempted a Latin translation of the Four Books of Confucianism, arguably the most important philosophical and cultural work of old China.
What is also undeniable is the role that missionaries played in the Chinese understanding of the West. Many of the first books published in the Chinese language from abroad were religious in nature. Matteo Ricci wrote a Chinese treatise on Christianity called The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven in 1596. In the 17th century, prayers were written and complied in Chinese by Ricci and fellow Jesuit Michele Ruggieri, assisted by Chinese scholars Xu Guanqi and Li Zhicao. Today, these prayers are still used, being rearranged and collected with other writings from other Christian orders from both within China and abroad. Aside from religious texts, Western books on philosophy and science were also among the first to be translated for Chinese audiences.
The thing I liked most about this book was the effort by the author to tell the story of Chinese people who were converted or born into Christianity. There are many Chinese Christians whose charitable works and cooperation in the overthrowing of the imperial system are worth noting. Xu Guangqi, a Ming Dynasty convert, worked for much of his life toward increasing what the Chinese knew about Western science, and applied what he had learned toward improving agriculture and technology. There were also many Christian villages in China that were admired for their concern for public welfare, and who were held in high praise, even among some within the Communist regime. In all the book is mostly about people like them, and as the book progresses missionary history takes a back seat to Chinese Christians and their lives.
Although incredibly informative, one aspect of the book that I found to be on shakier footing were the generalizations about Chinese people. For instance, the author remarks on the Chinese people's love of reciting prayers, their particular clannishness, or of their strong Confucian values paving the way for modern progress. These statements, of which the author makes special use of to support other arguments, are never supported by citation. Charbonnier, having spent 30 years in East Asia, could of course have us take him at his word. However, after a few years in Taiwan and having traveled to other places in Asia, I see no difference between the 'clannish' tendencies of Chinese people and those of Western cultures. The Irish and Scottish have perhaps the greatest reputation among Western Europeans as to clannishness. I have many friends of Irish and Scottish descent, and while many of them do tend to keep to themselves and their families while spurning outsiders, still more of them do make deep and lasting relationships with people outside of their cultural heritage. In my experience, the concept of clannishness is a often baseless stereotype applied to many cultures, and not a trait one can assign to any particular ethnic group.
Anyone who is interested in early interactions between China and the West will find Christians in China, A.D. 600 to 2000 very thorough, especially with regards to church history. It offers a humanistic though biased approach to the contributions and struggles of both missionaries and Chinese Christians.
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