Background

This collection of lively personal portraits showcases the lives of ten outstanding Chinese Christians who helped their country make social and cultural progress from 1870-1940, despite hard times of war and revolution. The budding civil society of one hundred years ago can be recovered as a foundation for a rebirth of civic norms and institutions.

These social and cultural reformers, both men and women, were pioneers in a wide range of modern professions. They served others out of their Christian convictions, which gave them a sense of vocation and a spirit of altruism. They lived out the command of Jesus in the book of Matthew to do good deeds as “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” They offered “light” to others in dark times, and served as “salt” to preserve a society under enormous stress from economic dislocation and corrupt power politics typical of early industrial capitalism world-wide.

Need and Opportunity

Influencers in Chinese society are re-thinking their past history and culture in search of “true history” and a new identity that is at once modern, democratic and authentically Chinese. They are seeking personal meaning and purpose as well as solutions to China’s pressing social problems. People want to learn how to live moral and meaningful lives. This provides a historic opening for reviving a balanced history of Christianity in China and reaffirming China’s Christian heritage.

Mainland and overseas Chinese scholars, as well as Christian leaders and young professionals, have confirmed the need for this project. They believe that good biographies can provide both living history and living theology for their peers and for a wider popular urban audience. Careful advance research indicates current concrete opportunities for publishing biographical material on Chinese Christians.

Few in China have training in church history or access to the lost and forgotten lives of indigenous Chinese Christians. Ironically, any number of early Chinese modernizers and democrats are household names, but their spiritual commitment is not known.

Objective

To spur public interest in China’s rich Christian legacy, and invite inquiry into the values of today’s Chinese Christians, by:

• Providing heroes - models for living - for young adults
• Expanding awareness that some of China’s greatest citizens have been Christians
• Creating a breakthrough toward positive attitudes toward Christianity

Multiple audiences

• University students, seminarians, young lay pastors and leaders in China and America
Young, educated urban mainland citizens, including Christians and their families
• Senior middle school students, church youth
• Chinese overseas (most of them English-speakers)
Non-Chinese who want to learn about World Christianity and also seek models for life and career.
• Scholars in religious studies

Scope

The “lost stories” emerge from in-depth scholarly research and family interviews, which provide interesting anecdotes, quotations and photographs/ research notes and a timeline at the end of each volume provide sources and the historical context.

The book series, including photos of the subjects and a timeline of events, will become the centerpiece for such promotional activities as a website with more graphics and resources, a book tour with lectures, T.V. and radio interviews, academic conference panels, and eventually multi-media products with study guides. The project would both build upon and contribute to the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.

Team

Series Editor: GCC Senior Associate and George Mason University Research Professor,
Dr. Carol Lee Hamrin; Co-editors for individual volumes: Global China Center Associates; Partners: Chapter authors; a China team of translators, editors, publishers.

Budget for Phase Two:

(promotion of Vol. 1; completion of Vols. 2 and 3): $168,000