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Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China, 1857-1927 Hardcover – May 1, 2001

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In this groundbreaking examination of Chinese Protestants and their place in the history of modern China, Ryan Dunch focuses on the Fuzhou area of southeast China from the mid-nineteenth century until 1927, when a national revolutionary government was established. Though accounting for only a small proportion of the population, Protestants occupied a central place in Fuzhou's political, intellectual, and social life, Dunch contends. He shows how Chinese Protestants, with a distinctive vision for constituting China as a modern nation-state, contributed to the dissolution of the imperial regime, enjoyed unprecedented popularity following the 1911 revolution, and then saw their dreams for social and political change dashed.

Dunch draws on previously untapped Chinese-language sources and on mission archives and publications to understand how Chinese Protestants saw themselves and to situate them within local Chinese society. He explores how the missionary presence diffused not only religion but also notions of nationalism and identity and models of political ritual. The book concludes with a discussion of the discrediting of Protestant nationalism and the frustration of Protestant hopes for China's swift conversion to Christianity.

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"With exceptional clarity Dunch revises our picture of the importance of Chinese Protestant Christianity." -- Paul A. Cohen, author of History in Three Keys and China and Christianity

From the Publisher

Yale Historical Publications

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; First Edition (May 1, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300080506
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300080506
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.28 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings

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Ryan Dunch
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2011
    Among Western historical works on Christianity in China, there are few that sufficiently address the perspective and experience of Chinese Christians and their role in the emergence of modern China. Dunch's book (a revised and expanded version of his dissertation) is a remarkable exception. Having marshaled an impressive body of research, Dunch sets out to account for the curious role of Chinese Protestants in the making of modern of China. From their disproportionate numbers among political and social elites during the late Qing and Republican Era to the part they played in many of the social reform movements of the first half of the twentieth century as well as the careful balancing act that many of them had to perform as they walked a precarious line between the too often paternalistic missionary and denominational foreign leadership and the Chinese populace whom they served. Dunch's grass roots social history brings out life in Republican China in vivid color. With this work, Dunch has made a strong claim as the rightful successor to Daniel Bays as the preeminent Western scholar of Christianity in China.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2001
    I wonder how many adults there are like me in the world? Maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions? We are non-Chinese adults, but we were born in China and spent our childhoods there. Probably at least one of our parents did too because we come from missionary or business or embassy or military families. And then suddenly, China mainland could no longer be our home. We fled along with many Chinese to Hong Kong or Taiwan or other Asian countries. But a part of our hearts will forever belong to our Motherland.
    For us, Ryan Dunch's book is wonderful information and affirmation. It shows what we've always wanted to believe -- that Christianity and the social morals for government derived from it did impact China positively. And that means the lives (and deaths) of our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and other relatives in China were not in vain.
    Tragically, there has been the Marxist Communism government detour. But even Communism brought some good to China -- one of the main benefits being unification of that colossal country. Chairman Mao was, afterall, influenced by his early education in a mission school. And he did promote many Christian principles without calling them that, such as equalizing the status of females. But ironically, perhaps the greatest good of Communism resulted from persecuting the Church and driving it underground. Christians have always multiplied miraculously under such circumstances, and China is perhaps the best historical example of that yet.
    With China advancing on the international scene as never before, this book is a must read, especially for adults with backgrounds like mine. Besides that, it's a great read! It's full of excellent, scholarly research, but it's also written in compelling historical-narrative style with wonderful stories.
    I predict that in a few years, author Dunch will need to add another conclusion. With as many Christians as there are in China now (some estimates approach 100 million) and with the need to be secret nearly eliminated, soon China may experience what many thought would happen decades ago. China may yet become a Christian nation to parallel or surpass the U.S.A. Perhaps in a decade or two, immigrants from around the world will stand in line to move to China.
    A fairly recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled "The Christian Martyrs" (9-29-00) concludes with this powerful thought: "But this century has demonstrated that a Chinese Christianity that communist authorities fully expected to wither away once they had cut it off from its foreign influences has in fact blossomed. We cannot help wondering if beneath Beijing's war of words with Rome lies the sneaking recognition that when the Chinese people are free to write an honest history of this century, the cross is likely to occupy a higher position of honor than the hammer and sickle."
    Readers will fully concur with that comment after they've read author Dunch's remarkable account of "Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China." Wow, what a superb book!
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