Global Chinese Catholicism webinar

Friday, 18th February 8-10pm (Hong Kong time)

Dr Yun ZHOU is a lecturer in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Dr Zhou received her PhD from the ANU in 2019. Her PhD thesis examines the Christian attempt to transform the institution of the Chinese family by investigating the ideal Christian domesticity portrayed by Nü duo. She is currently revising her thesis into a monograph.

A Missing Piece for Global Catholicism? Marian Adoration in Protestant Women’s Literature for Republican China

Marian devotions have been an important part of religious identity in global Catholic communities. In China, Marian paintings in local worship can be traced back to the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Catholic gender ethics barely challenged the existing gender hierarchy in China. Due to the Catholic gender hierarchy, discussion of Marian images, both in the process of indigenisation and in theological discussion in general, was conducted by men. Protestant church gender norms confined women to working for other women, but within that sphere, Protestant women were engaged in transforming Chinese society on various levels. This presentation focuses on the Protestant women’s literature that circulated Marian images in Republican China. The first and longest running Protestant women’s magazine in China, Nü duo (1912–1951), consistently upheld Mary as the model for all women, which is an integral part of the global adoration of Mary. Nü duo emphasises Mary’s role as mother in promoting a domestic womanhood. Imagined versions of the life story and thoughts of Mary were portrayed in the articles published in the magazine. Mary was represented as a historic role model, and her role in redemption was related to every woman in China and beyond. This study enriches scholarly discussions on Mary beyond a simplistic dichotomy of Protestantism and Catholicism.             

Discussant:

Dr Song Gang is Associate Professor of Chinese History at the University of Hong Kong. He has broad interests in China-West cultural exchanges in history, Chinese religions, and Confucian intellectual history, while his research focuses on Catholic Christianity in late imperial China. Song is the author of Giulio Aleni, Kouduo richao, and Christian-Confucian Dialogism in Late Ming Fujian (Routledge, 2018), and the editor of Reshaping the Boundaries: The Christian Intersection of China and the West in the Modern Era (HKUP, 2016) and Transmission, Writing, and Imagination: The West in Late Imperial Chinese Culture (FUP, 2019). The projects that he is currently working on include Chinese Marian devotions in the 17th century and early Catholic Bible translations in China.

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https://nus-sg.zoom.us/j/84595068171?pwd=R0xqVDV4aVk4MjVkb3ZTSVlzSUlZdz09 

Meeting ID: 845 9506 8171 

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