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The Basil Society's China mission, one of the ore successful Protestant missions in the nineteenth century, was distinguished by the fact that most of the initial proselytizing was conducted by Chinese converts in the interior rather than by Western missionaries in the treaty ports. Thus the first viable protestant communities were not only established by Chinese evangelists, they were established among an ethnic minority in south China, the Hakka people.The autobiographies of eight pioneer Chinese missionaries featured in this book offer an unusual opportunity to view village life and customs in Guangdong during the mid-nineteenth century by providing details on Hakka death and burial rituals, ancestor veneration, lineages and lineage feuds, geomancy, the status of Hakka women, widespread economic hardship, and civil disorder.The authors' commentary addresses the issue of conversion, which was fueled by individual desire for solace and salvation, the building of a support community amid social chaos and the possibility of social mobility through education. Despite an expanding role by Western missionaries, the Chinese origins, the rural interior locale, and the status of the Hakka as a disadvantaged minority contributed to successive generations of Christian families and to early progress toward an autonomous Hakka church.
List of contents
1. Introduction 2. Biography of Jiang Jiaoren 3. Biography of Zhang Fuxing 4. Biography ofDai Wenguang 5. Biography of Xu Fuguang 6. Biography of Zhang Zhongmu 7. Autobiography ofLai Xinglian 8. Biography of Zhang Yunfa 9. The Life of the Departed Deacon Li Zhenggao 10. Poverty in the Highlands 11. Geomancy, Spirits and Souls, Death and Burial Rituals 12. Social Disorder, Lineage Feuds, and Banditry 13. Hakka Women 14. Appeals of Christianity and Chinese Religious Sects 15. Deterrants and Hardships 16. Arrival of Westerners and Persecution 17. Challenges to Confucian Society: Women 18. Parochial Education 19. Autonomy, Expansion, and Indigenization 20. Epilogue
About the author
Jessie Gregory Lutz, Rolland Ray Lutz
