Shanghai Faithful

by Jennifer Lin

  165 On the eve of the Communist victory: Lin Pu-chi, “A Christian’s Proper Attitude to the Current Situation,” Chinese Churchman 38, no. 1 (1949): 1–3.

  166 But the bishop felt bound by duty: Y. Y. Tsu, Friend of Fishermen (Ambler, PA: Trinity, 1953), 156.

  166 Lin Pu-chi made his thoughts known: See Wallace C. Merwin and Francis P. Jones in Documents of the Three Self Movement: Source Materials for the Study of the Protestant Church in Communist China (New York: National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, 1963). Also see both Daniel Bays, A New History of Christianity in China (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and Philip Wickeri, Seeking the Common Ground: Protestant Christianity, the Three-Self Movement, and China’s United Front (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1988), who discuss the importance of the “Message from Chinese Christians to Mission Boards Abroad.”

  168 At the Sheng Kung Hui national office: Tsu, Friend of Fishermen, 149.

  168 he had made the wrong decision: Tsu, Friend of Fishermen, 157–60.

  168 Premier Zhou had warned: Taken from “Notes on Report of Conference with Premier Zhou Enlai regarding the Christian Church in China,” July 27, 1950, Bishop Y. Y. Tsu, China historical correspondence, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas.

  169 Zhou summoned: “Delegates in the Whole Body of Christian Conference Accuses Agents of Imperialistic Crimes. Severely Blames Frank Price and Others of Being Tools of Imperialistic Aggression. Unanimously Begs the People’s Government to Give Severe Punishment,” Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong, April 24, 1951. Taken from New China Agency report from Beijing, April 22.

  170 It fell upon his colleague: Statement of Bishop Chen, “I Accuse Y. Y. Tsu, Running Dog of American Imperialism,” included in personal papers of Y. Y. Tsu, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas.

  171 Confusion, dissension, and internal strife: Excerpt from David W. K. Au, letter to Y. Y. Tsu, October 18, 1951.

  171 process of undoing the past: Chen Chonggui, “Why Do We Denounce?” Tian Feng Weekly 11, no. 22, June 9, 1951, 1–3. Also see Wu Yaozang, “A Summary of the Christian Three Self Reforming Movement in the Past Eight Months,” Chinese Churchman 40, no. 6 (June 15, 1951): 4–6.

  172 His editorial in the June 1951 issue: Lin Pu-chi, “Talking Earnestly with the Clergymen of Our Church in the Three Self Movement,” Chinese Churchman 40, no. 6 (June 15, 1951): 8–10.

  172 The Church of Our Savior: Lin Pu-chi, “Accusing the American Lackey and Church Degenerate Zhu Youyu,” Tianfeng, 1951, 9. Also, the Hong Kong–based Ta Kung Pao ran an account of the denunciation session on August 5, 1951, under the headline, “Announcement of the Shanghai Episcopal Church Leaves the World Council of Churches Forever.” A translation was included in the personal papers of Bishop Y. Y. Tsu.

  Chapter 13: Missing

  Interviews: Emma and Tim Lin, Martha Sun, Basil Sun.

  Lin Pu-chi described scenes in the family home in his monthly letters to his son in Philadelphia, Paul M. Lin.

  The following sources provided information on the arrest, denunciation, indictment, and trial of Watchman Nee.

  Books

  Lily Hsu with Dana Roberts, My Unforgettable Memories: Watchman Nee & Shanghai Local Church (Longwood, FL: Xulon Press, 2013).

  Angus Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Unforgettable Story Behind Watchman Nee, rev. ed. (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway, 2005).

  Xi Lian, Redeemed by Fire (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010).

  Newman Sze, The Martyrdom of Watchman Nee (Culver City, CA: Testimony, 1997).

  Silas H. Wu, Shell Breaking and Soaring: The Imprisonment and Transformation of Watchman Nee (Boston: Pishon River, 2004).

  Articles

  Joseph Tse-hei Lee, “Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China,” Church History: Studies in Christianity in China 74, no. 1 (March 2005): 68–96.

  Jialin Liang, “Investigation into Ni Tuosheng’s Guilt,” Jian Dao Magazine, no. 17, January 2002.

  Fuk-tsang Ying, “Watchman Nee and the Three-Self Reforming Movement,” in Anti-Imperialism, Patriotism and the Spiritual Man: A Study on Watchman Nee and the “Little Flock” (Hong Kong: Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2005), 31–98.

  178 The Little Flock had more than seventy thousand members: Estimates vary. According to Lee, in 1955, the government put the numbers at 80,000 members at 870 locations

  179 He gave a series of talks: The series of talks—titled “How Did I Turn Around?”—were reprinted in Lily Hsu’s memoir, My Unforgettable Memories, 304–35.

  180 in August 1955 when PSB agents: The secret document was a primary source for Joseph Lee in “Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China.”

  182 “God opened my eyes”: Hsu quotes Ni Guizhen in her memoir, 118.

  182 On February 1: Coverage in Liberation Daily, February 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8, 1956.

  183 Nine days after the Tian Chan denunciation: Hsu, My Unforgettable Memories, 122–30. In addition, the exhibition was described by relatives of Watchman Nee, including Tim Lin, Basil Sun, and Xu Fengxian.

  185 One of the Little Flock observers: Hsu, My Unforgettable Memories, 135–37.

  Chapter 14: Prelude

  Interviews: Julia Tsien, Martha Sun.

  188 one of the “Eight Immortals”: The immortals were described by Lin Pu-chi in an article published in 1918 and written under his Christian name with a regional spelling of his last name. Peter C. Ling, “The Eight Immortals of the Taoist Religion,” Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1918): 53–75.

  192 When Watchman Nee was escorted into the room: The sister-in-law of Watchman Nee, Xu Fengxian, described the meeting in an interview in Shanghai on June 17, 2003, that was shared with the author. Conditions inside the jail were also described by Angus Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Unforgettable Story Behind Watchman Nee, rev. ed. (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway, 2005), 284–90.

  193 All she had was family and Ni Guizhen: Silas H. Wu, Shell Breaking and Soaring: The Imprisonment and Transformation of Watchman Nee (Boston: Pishon River, 2004), 73–81.

  193 Inside cell block 3: Wu, Shell Breaking and Soaring, 69–72.

  Chapter 15: Lane 170

  202 The summer of 1966: To re-create the attacks on families in Lane 170, I interviewed Martha Sun and her daughters, Terri Sun and Julia Tsien; Tim Lin, his wife, Emma, and children, Kaikai Lin and Lin Yu; Sun Guoguang, the brother-in-law of Martha Sun; and Boling Dong, a resident of Lane 170.

  203 The campaign quickly turned ugly: Song Yongyi, “Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976),” Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, published online August 25, 2011, http://www.massviolence.org/Chronology-of-Mass-Killings-during-the-Chinese-Cultural. Also see Guo Jian, Yongyi Song, and Yuan Zhou, The A to Z of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2009).

  203 With crimson armbands: Description of street scenes in Shanghai were found in Far Eastern Economic Review, September 8, 1966, 443–45.

  209 During the Red Terror: Statistics were collected by Elizabeth J. Perry and Li Xun, Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997).

  211 The Red Guards even had a song: Lyrics to all songs mentioned in this chapter were taken from Lu Xing, Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture and Communications (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004).

  Chapter 16: Yellow Music

  Interviews: Julia Tsien and Basil Sun.

  215 the middle school for the Shanghai Conservatory: For an understanding of classical music in China, I relied on Sheila Melvin and Cai Jindong, Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese (New York: Algora, 2004).

  Chapter 17: Barefoot Doctor

  Interviews: Terri Sun, Martha Sun, an
d Julia Tsien.

  Chapter 18: Passages

  Interviews: Terri Sun, Martha Sun, Julia Tsien, and Emma Lin.

  239 Charity was singled out: Angus Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Unforgettable Story Behind Watchman Nee, rev. ed. (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway, 2005), 281–84.

  240 on a rutted road: Kinnear, Against the Tide, 295–98.

  Chapter 21: Faith

  262 We were both monumentally wrong: Fenggang Yang, “When Will China Become the World’s Largest Christian Country?” Slate, sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, December 2, 2014.

  262 The official population of Protestants and Catholics: I consulted the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life report on “Global Christianity,” December 2011; and a Council on Foreign Relations background paper on “Religion in China,” June 10, 2015.

  263 The cross campaign made headlines: Ian Johnson, “Church-State Clash in China Coalesces around a Toppled Spire,” New York Times, May 29, 2014; Tom Phillips, “China’s Christians Protest ‘Evil’ Communist Campaign to Tear Down Crosses,” Guardian, July 27, 2015; Ishaan Tharoor, “Why China Is Removing Crosses from Hundreds of Churches,” Washington Post, May 14, 2015; and “Render unto Caesar,” Economist, July 25, 2015.

  267 Brother Lin was convicted four times: Brother Lin documented his life in his unsigned testimonial, God’s Grace Is Great (Taipei City: Taiwan Gospel Bookroom, February 2004).

  Bibliography

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  Hind, John. Fukien Memories. Belfast: James A. Nelson, 1951.

  Hook, Marion. Save Some: C.E.Z.M.S. Work in Fuh-kien. London: Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, 1900.

  Hsu, Lily M. My Unforgettable Memories: Watchman Nee & Shanghai Local Church. With Dana Roberts. Maitland, FL: Xulon, 2013.

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  Huntington, Virginia E. Along the Great River. New York: National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1950.

  Johnston, Tess, and Deke Erh. Hallowed Halls: Protestant Colleges in Old China. Hong Kong: Old China Hand, 1998.

  Kindoff, Jason, and Carol Lee Hamrin, eds. God and Caesar in China: Policy Implications of Church-State Tensions. Washington, DC: Brookings, 2004.

  Kinnear, Angus. Against the Tide: The Unforgettable Story Behind Watchman Nee. Eastbourne, England: Kingsway, 1974.

  Lambert, Tony. China’s Christian Millions: The Costly Revival. London: Monarch, 1999.

  Lamberton, Mary. St. John’s University, 1879–1951. New York: United Board for Christian Colleges in China, 1955.

  Lee, Witness. Watchman Nee: A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age. Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1997.

  Lewis, Ida Bell. The Education of Girls in China. New York: Teachers College, 1919.

  Lian, Xi. Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

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  Lin Yutang. From Pagan to Christian. Cleveland: World, 1959.

  ———. My Country and My People. London: Heinemann, 1936.

  Lodwick, Kathleen L. Crusaders against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China 1874–1917. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.

  Lu Xing. Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture and Communication. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.

  Macfarquhar, Roderick, and Michael Schoenhals. Mao’s Last Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2006.

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  Melvin, Sheila, and Jindong Cai. Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese. New York: Algora, 2004.

  Merwin, Wallace C., and Francis P. Jones. Documents of the Three Self Movement: Source Materials for the Study of the Protestant Church in Communist China. New York: National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, 1963.

  Nee, Watchman. Concerning Our Missions. Shanghai: Gospel Book Room, 1939.

  ———. Normal Christian Faith. Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1993.

  ———. The Spiritual Man. Vol. 1. New York: Christian Fellowship, 1968.

  Nield, Robert. The China Coast: Trade and the First Treaty Ports. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (HK), 2010.

  Pakenham-Walsh, William S. Some Typical Christians of South China. London: Marshall Brothers, 1905.

  ———. Twenty Years in China. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1935.

  Palmer, David A., Glenn Shive, and Philip Wickeri, eds. Chinese Religious Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

  Perry, Elizabeth, and Li Xun. Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997.

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  ———. The Story of the Fuh-kien Mission of the Church Missionary Society. London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, 1890.