Religious Entrepreneurism in China’s Urban House Churches

The Rise and Fall of Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church

Li Ma

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000227925
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion, Politics & State

This book offers a unique historical documentation of the development of the ambitious religious entrepreneurism by leaders of the Early Rain church (and later Western China Presbytery leadership), in an effort to gain social influence in China through local institution-building and global public image management. It unravels the social processes of how this Christian community with a public image of defending religious freedom in China was undermined by an internal loss of moral authority.

Based on publicly available texts from Chinese social media that aren't readily available in the West as well as in-depth interviews, it is framed by existing scholarship in social theories of the public sphere, charismatic domination in social transition, and the role of power in organizational behaviour. These churches' stories show how Christianity, which has long been politically marginalized in communist China, has not only adapted and challenged the socio-political status quo, but how it was also ironically shaped by the political culture.

This is an insightful and critical ethnographic study of one of modern China's most famous house churches. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religion in China as well as those working in Religious Studies, Asian studies, Chinese studies, and Mission Studies more generally.

Part I

Consolidation

1 Dissidents and liberals

In 2005, most political liberals in Chengdu had heard of the Straw Hall Reading Society (草堂读书会), which originated in a main street teahouse near a tourist site. Every Tuesday afternoon, Chinese writers, professors, poets and college students gathered there to talk about books, articles and current affairs. There was little formality, as participants each ordered a glass of tea and sat loosely in wide bamboo chairs facing the speaker of the week. After a short presentation of 30 minutes on a certain topic, the floor was opened up for discussion. Later, the group changed location to a tea bar inside the city public library located in Jinjiang District. Most times the atmosphere was congenial, although people also debated and challenged each other. Gradually, the group gained fame as a local gathering of liberals. Students from nearby campuses were attracted to the talks, which presented something quite different from their ideologically-controlled universities.

Historically, Chengdu has always been a hub of political liberalism. As a local pastor Huang (pseudonym, male, 56) recalls, “however radical the central government became, Chengdu has always been lukewarm.” According to local literary critic Yunfei Ran (冉云飞), regular attendee of the Straw Hall Reading Society, this cultural avoidance of radicalism has much to do with the city’s free speech atmosphere and its traditional paoge (袍哥) culture.

Citizens in Chengdu do not care for grand narratives because they are located far from China’s political center. The region is quite resourceful, so people live a leisurely life. Chatting, literature, arts all came out of such a lifestyle, especially in teahouses. These natural conditions and a community of educated literary elites contributed to a freer speech climate… . The second factor is our paoge culture, which penalizes whistleblowing betrayal (告密). This does not mean that Sichuan folks never become whistleblowers, but rather that people would feel ashamed about it. The Anti-Rightist Movement and Cultural Revolution have partly undermined this tradition, but it is still there. It is a core element of our local culture.¹

In Chengdu, there is no better place than the signature teahouses for these liberals to gather. The city actually boasts over ten thousand assorted teahouses, the largest number of teahouses in the world, operating on almost every street. These places usually set up wide bamboo chairs surrounding small wooden tea tables. Jasmine tea in glasses and Gaiwan tea in traditional China sets are typical items to order. Some local residents spend a whole day chatting in these public lobbies without needing to spend much money. In this local, leisurely free speech culture, people enjoy gossiping and chattering in their crisp dialects.

Notably, in May 2006 regular members of Chengdu’s Straw Hall Reading Society experienced a split over a controversy later known as “The Exclusion of Guo” (排郭事件). At the center of the incident was 33-year-old Yi Wang, a regular convener of this liberal society.

White House meeting

Since 2002, Yi Wang had gained fame as a liberal voice on China’s internet forums. In 2006, Wang’s close association with some human rights lawyers made him a candidate for a meeting with George W. Bush, together with three other Chinese nationals, including writer Jie Yu (余杰) and activist Feixiong Guo (郭飞雄). As guests from China, all of them were attending the Freedom in China Summit in 2006 sponsored by the Institute of Chinese Law and Religion and Hudson Institute.

Right before the meeting with George W. Bush was to materialize, on May 11, Yi Wang persuaded the other two participants and event coordinator Bob Fu, President of ChinaAid, to exclude 40-year-old Guo from the meeting. Yi Wang and Jie Yu insisted that the White House’s intention was to meet with house church Christians in China, but Guo was not a Christian. They expressed fear that Guo’s association with cults like Falungong might bring unnecessary trouble for house churches in China.² Thus Wang and Yu determinedly argued that if Guo was to meet with Bush, then the two of them would pull out. As a result, Guo was excluded from the meeting. Later, Guo wrote his recollection of the incident. He recalled that a few hours before the meeting, Yi Wang and another pastor asked Guo to excuse them for a minute because they had to say a prayer to God. After this, Guo was told that through praying to God, they had decided not to let him participate.

I remember clearly that Yi Wang specifically told me: ‘Feixiong, you are in politics. You are mixed in with the democratic movement, whereas I am defending freedom of religion.’ … The scene that these four Christians embracing themselves to pray to God and then deprived me of my right to attend a normal diplomatic meeting will be forever etched in my mind.³

To everyone’s surprise, however, media results came out on May 11, disapproving the “Christian” nature of this meeting. The White House photo as well as the news captions on Reuters and Associated Press all referred to the Bush meeting with “human rights activists from China.”⁴ The picture of this meeting with Bush won lots of publicity for Jie Yu and Yi Wang. But when news traveled back to China, many liberals voiced angry protests. Yi Wang, a daily blogger, did not mention the incident on his blog.⁵ Nevertheless, jarring comments began to appear under Wang’s recent posts in May on unrelated topics, challenging him about whether it was his intention to sacrifice the benefits of others for the benefit of Christians.

It was not until two weeks later that Yi Wang and Jie Yu responded to the incident after an increasing number of liberals in China were charging them with an act of betrayal. Both of them published articles online, defending what they had done from a Christian standpoint. In his letter, Yi Wang explained that although house churches also seek political justice, they do need to submit to political authorities. “We cannot equate these pursuits with Guo’s version of democratic rights.”⁶ Yi Wang also stated that he was disturbed by Guo’s “certain nationalistic democratic ideals and a Sun Yat-sen complex.”⁷ Wang ended with enthusiastic praise for God’s providence in the event:

It seems to me what really happened was the marvelous deeds of God. We three Christians who entered the White House knew nothing and had made no plans beforehand. Was it plotted in advance? Will China’s freedom and democracy rely on trickery? Will freedom of religion rely on strategizing? As I see it, it relies on faith in God’s love and justice.⁸

Jie Yu also wrote and explained that most White House staff present that day were devout Christians, and the themes of their discussion included house churches in China and some personal testimonies. Yu said, “Toward the end of the meeting, President Bush led us in prayer. Apparently, such an occasion was not suitable for non-Christians.”⁹ Tragically, soon after Guo returned to China, he was arrested, sentenced to five years in jail, and severely tortured. Consequently, this incident in 2006 tore asunder the emerging liberal movement inside China.¹⁰

In China, liberalism (自由主义) has been a trend since around the 1910s, championing individual liberty, limited government and free market enterprises. Since the 1980s, it re-emerged as an intellectual preoccupation among educated Chinese, with emphases on rule of law and laissez-faire economic policies. Two academic disciplines, law and economics, became expanding areas of scholarship.

Back in Chengdu, following this controversy, regular members of the Straw Hall Reading Society also took sides. Many hardcore fans of Yi Wang turned against him and posted combative articles online. As a former member of the society, Su (pseudonym, female, 33) comments, “Wang had no right to decide who else should be invited or not [to meet with Bush]. It was simply not his choice to make.”¹¹ Within a month, the Independent Chinese Pen Center (ICPC), an organization for exiled Chinese writers based in the United States, received an open petition on June 26, 2006 to depose Yi Wang and Jie Yu from their ICPC positions.¹² As the petition states, “personal faith has become their sharp weapon for a religious inquisition, and they used it to exclude anyone who they deemed as dissenters.” A similarly dividing debate took place in many house churches.

This controversy involving the tragic fate of Feixiong Guo has continued since then, for Guo became one of the most persecuted activists in China. He has been repeatedly arrested, released and sentenced for a total of 11 years. It was not until 2017 that event organizer Bob Fu acknowledged on his Twitter account that the arrangement made that year was a mistake.¹³ This short statement was followed by a flurry of requests for the “total truth.” Activists such as Yunchao Wen recalls that he once confronted Yi Wang in 2009 when Wang was giving a public speech in Guangzhou. Yi Wang told the audience that they ought to speak out the whole truth before God. As Wen recalls, he once asked Yi Wang if he spoke out the whole truth in the Guo-exclusion incident, and Wang answered that one has to differentiate public truth from private truth and that he spoke the public truth.¹⁴ Wen said that this explanation made no sense to him, but it was the end of their conversation.

At the time, Jie Yu, a graduate of Beijing University, enjoyed more fame than Yi Wang in China. As early as 1999, Yu’s first book, Fire and Ice, received sensational reviews. In 2010, after writing a series of critical biographies of a series of Chinese leaders, Yu was arrested and tortured. After another year of house arrest, Yu emigrated to seek asylum in the United States. Inside China, Yi Wang began to enjoy more prestige.

Young and famous

Born in 1973 in the small township of Santai in Sichuan province, Yi Wang grew up with a “literary dream” inherited from his father, a middle school Chinese teacher.¹⁵ His grandfather Mr. Wang was originally a local gentry who owned a medicine store. In 1950, the communists confiscated Wang’s mansion and turned it into the township’s government building. At the same time, they also gave Mr. Wang a rank among township officials. As Yi Wang recalled, “My grandfather likes to talk and writes well. Just like me, he got himself into much trouble because of his words.”¹⁶ A year after the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, Mr. Wang was labeled a Rightist. During the famine of 1961, he died in a labor camp in Qinghai province. Later in 1968, Wang’s grandmother drowned herself in a pond after a series of struggle meetings, leaving Yi Wang’s father with five siblings. It was not until after the Cultural Revolution that these children were able to build two empty tombs for their parents. According to Yi Wang, his father entered into Sichuan Normal University and taught middle-school-level Chinese language for eight years in a remote region of Shaanxi province.

Wang’s maternal grandfather wa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of abbreviations and terms
• Notes on names
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Consolidation
• Part II Expansionism
• Part III Radicalization
• Glossary
• Index