Reshaping the Boundaries: The Christian Intersection of China and the West in the Modern Era
Song Gang
Abstract
This book presents extensive research on the formation and transformation of varied types of knowledge, perceptions, and representations exchanged between China and the West from 1600 to 1900. The interweaving of both Chinese and Western perspectives goes beyond the limitations of some influential theories and methodological models, e.g., the Eurocentric assumption of a simple one-way cultural flow, with Western missionaries transmitting and the Chinese receiving. Meanwhile, the book sets a framework in which the seven studies taken together uncover the distinctive feature of “in-betweenness” ... More
This book presents extensive research on the formation and transformation of varied types of knowledge, perceptions, and representations exchanged between China and the West from 1600 to 1900. The interweaving of both Chinese and Western perspectives goes beyond the limitations of some influential theories and methodological models, e.g., the Eurocentric assumption of a simple one-way cultural flow, with Western missionaries transmitting and the Chinese receiving. Meanwhile, the book sets a framework in which the seven studies taken together uncover the distinctive feature of “in-betweenness” embedded in the encounter of late imperial China and the modern West.
The contributors to this book take a multidisciplinary approach to this significant cross-cultural encounter, featured by three major Christian denominations—Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. They use abundant existing and newly found sources, including official records, personal letters, musical instruments, news reports, rumors, and miracle stories, to illustrate how ideological, religious, and cultural boundaries may have been reshaped on both sides of the encounter. The “in-between” or hybrid ideas, images, and identities emerging from these boundary-crossing interactions demonstrate the interactiveness and interdependence of Chinese and Western peoples not only among themselves but also within a larger global community during the modern era.
Keywords:
China-West relation,
cross-cultural encounter,
boundaries of cultures,
in-betweenness or hybridity,
Christianity in China
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9789888390557 |
| Published to University Press Scholarship Online: January 2018 |
DOI:10.5790/hongkong/9789888390557.001.0001 |
