Abstract
In the wake of the First Opium War, Christianity entered Xiamen and thereafter played a major role in the modernization of Gulangyu Island. Trinity Church, built in 1934, was a witness to the prosperity of Christianity on this island. Despite the harsh repression during Mao’s political campaigns, Trinity Church survived and revived after its reopening in the late 1970s. However, the church was doomed to decline because of the state-led commercialization driven by the development of tourism on the island. As Gulangyu experienced rapid social, cultural, and demographic changes, Christianity on the island in general and Trinity Church in particular were inevitably affected. This chapter, based on an ethnographic research of Trinity Church, reveals the fate of Christianity on the changing island.
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Notes
- 1.
Throughout this chapter, pseudonyms are used for those still living.
- 2.
In this section, the historical information about Trinity Church is mainly from Xiamen Christian Trinity Church (2014).
- 3.
See Xiamen archive (ref. B058-001-0058).
- 4.
Xiamen archive (ref. B058-001-0058).
- 5.
Recently, financial contributions have decreased, as increasingly more elderly overseas members of Trinity Church have died and the transnational connections have weakened.
- 6.
One of my respondents questioned the amount that Trinity Church had contributed to its counterparts, and implied that Wen exaggerated the number.
- 7.
For a fuller analysis of Old Pastor Wen and his negotiations with local officials , see Liu and White (Forthcoming).
- 8.
“Introduction to Residents with Hukous,” People’s Government of Siming District, accessed October 16, 2015, http://www.siming.gov.cn/smgk/nj/2014/html/05-0100003.htm.
- 9.
On Gulangyu any kinds of motor vehicle (battery-powered carts are used for police patrol or tourists) are forbidden. The carrying of goods relies on a large number of drays and laborers mainly from Anhui and Henan provinces.
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Funding
Follow-up research for this chapter was supported by China’s Ministry of Education under the project “The Cross-Border Construction and Influence of Traditional Religious Communities in Fujian Qiaoxiang in the Internet Era” (grant number: 17YJA840012).
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Liu, J. (2019). The Passing of Glory: Urban Development, Local Politics and Christianity on Gulangyu. In: White, C. (eds) Protestantism in Xiamen. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89471-3_4
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