by fulltimestudent 19 Replies latest social current
And finally (for the moment)
This is the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Harbin. Its official name is Sacred Heart of Jesus Diocesan Cathedral of Harbin, the main Catholic church in Harbin. The Chinese name is Harbin Shengxin Tianzhu Jiaotang and if you ever want to visit, the address is 211 Dongdazhi Street, Nangang district, Harbin.
If you wonder why so many churches in Harbin, its simply because North China has (and also in the past) a strong Russian influence.
In Tianjin there is this church
Xikai Catholic Church
Located at the west end of Binjiang Street in Tianjin, the Xikai Catholic Church is the biggest Catholic Church in the city. It is also called the "French Church" because it was first built by the French. With a height of 45 meters and an area of 1,585 square meters, it is a typical French Romanesque building that is open to the public.
Tianjin was another Chinese city taken over by the Brits (and others) after the Opium wars. And, it was also the point of entry for the so-called 'allied' intervention in the Boxer (also, so-called) Rebellion. Which wasn't a rebellion, but a native resistance to western penetration (a polite alternative to the F word), mbut the western allies saw it as a rebellion against their "right" to do what they wanted in China.
It took 14 days for the "allies" to march to Beijing. In modern China, a very fast train will take you there in a half hour
Thank you for posting these pictures. I never realized that there were so many Christian churches in China, and old ones at that. The ones that looked obviously Russian were amazing.
I'm glad that you are finally getting to go on your long awaited trip to China. I certainly hope Qantas holds it together for you!
Please bring back lots of photos and share them with us, will you?
GT
GT
I never realized that there were so many Christian churches in China
Grin - we've only started, GT. I wondered whether I should start this thread, as it could go on for pages, But it does tell an interesting story. For example that last post, the Tianjin Catholic church - there's a tragic story there, that get's written up as Christian persecution, but when you know the whole story you can see a much more nuanced incident. I'll post that next.
I'm glad that you are finally getting to go on your long awaited trip to China. I certainly hope Qantas holds it together for you! Please bring back lots of photos and share them with us, will you?
Yeah! Who would've thought a decade ago that travelling Qantas would be a concern? That is, unless you know some Qantas staff who seem to have a hate relationship with their employer.
And yes, I'll try to bring back some good piks.
Here's some more images of the above Catholic church in Tianjin.
It looks so peaceful in this view:
And this view was taken between 1910 and 1915
(Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) ).
And at night-
The church was severely damaged in the great Tianjin earthquake of 1976 - repairs took until 1980. Which likely explains why the church looks in such good condition, but maybe its also because in 1981, the church was listed on T ianjin’s cultural relics protection list.
It's still an active church, here's a view of the Easter service in 2010
There are of course two sides to the story.
Here's a (recent) French version:
Note that this French web-site, is discussing a Chinese fan that a Chinese (possibly a businessman) had distributed after the incident referred to above. The images on the fan, showing graphically the burning of the church, won't reproduce here (French copyright) but you can see them on the website at: http://eventail.pagesperso-orange.fr/martyrs/martyrs1e.htm
The two treaties of Tien-Tsin, the first non-applied, the second imposed after the victory of British and French troops and the regrettable, reprehensible and inexcusable "Summer Palace sacking" open in 1860 many places in China, to official (presence of consuls), commercial and religious westerners. Tien-Tsin (Tianjin) is one of them. A Lazarist Chinese priest, Father Joseph Tsiou, a skilled doctor, begins the roman catholic mission there. " He specializes in baptism of dying babies. " He meets a strong opposition from a part of the population before dying of illness in August 1861. He is replaced by another French missionary and also by a group of nuns send by the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity. Most of them are French , with the exception of one Irish and one Belgian sisters.These nuns come of course with in mind and heart the best intentions: saving the souls of many Chinese from the Devil and barbarism ! To "add to the turnover" (May the Martyres forgive us!), they continue as their predecessor did to baptize children on the brink of death, including in a Chinese orphanage where that they had gained access. "From the first year, ... we could send six hundred little angels to heaven "(Sister Dutrouilh ).
But very quickly, some Tien-Tsin inhabitants are annoyed by their activity, and at the end of 1863, Sister Martha says "Thousands of fabulous rumours run on our behalf, and the Christians here are a too small number to refute them." After the purchase of a new house to a mandarin, things seemed to improve a bit: "... The pagans are beginning to understand that we are not coming here to tear their eyes, or to make a trade advantage" For that was the kind of rumours some people where spreading ! (And note that, "the day of the killings were to be found ... a jar of pickled onion, and the people claimed that it was a can (of) eyes torn from children" ...).
The sisters were soon assisted by two Catholic Lazarists priests, one French, Claude-Marie Chevrier (appointed in late 1864 after a mission in Mongolia), the other Chinese, Ou Vincent. Also in line with a charity then in vogue, the so-called "Holy Childhood", they too sought to baptize and to teach young children (sometimes sick or stunted) when their families were unable or unwilling to deal with.Father Chevrier did a lot in order a church was built. He insisted, (as a former soldier !) that it was dedicated to Notre-Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories), which perhaps was not so much a good mark in psychology. This is the very church showed on our fan. It was completed on December 8th 1869 ... a nd experienced many difficulties : destroyed in 1870 during the events we are now evoking, it was rebuilt but very soon devastated again during the well known "Boxer War" in 1900. Rebuilt again, it was more recently victim of the 1976 earthquake and rebuilt one more time, always with the same appearance : that of a North of France church
!
I havn't had time to add to the buildings already shown. But just came across this pik in an architectural essay.
Its interesting because it seems to have been built circa early 1900's, and clearly has Chinese influences. And, that's an interesting story. Some say that western missionaries preferred to build in the style of their homelands. But during my recent visit I did see one other (protestant) church in Shanghai that had Chinese architectural influences . I'll try to post that soon.
And heres a very modern example (built 2008)
Haidian Christian Church is a Protestant church located in Zhongguancun , Beijing . It's claimed to be the largest in China.
It was designed by Gerkan, Marg and Partners, Architects in 2005-2007 for €3.5 million. It has a gross floor area of 4,000 m². It is interesting for another reason. It's designed to have commercial space that provides an income for the church. The Architects comment:
This design for the largest Christian church in China is characterized by a Chinese type of "triple p", meaning public-private partnership with commercial spaces on the ground floor, and by its striking facade rod system. Gerkan, Marg and Partners
The congregation is an official protestant group, known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. And that's another interesting story that reaches back into Chinese history. The military/commercial attempts by European powers to turn China into a European colony (in the 19th C) was soon used by Christian churches to piggyback on that military/commercial aggression and attempt to convert China to Christianity. The missionaries quickly started to utilise "extra-territoriality,"that is, that Europeans (and, their Chinese converts) were not subject to Chinese law, but to the law of whatever European nation the church they belonged to preferred.
When eventually the Communists came to power they told the churches that they had to be Chinese, or they could piss off.
Some did, some went underground and some conformed. This church is owned by a Chinese group that conformed to Chinese law.
The Three-Self Patriotic Movement ( 三自爱国运动 , colloquially 三自教会 , the Three-Self Church) or TSPM is a Protestant church in the People's Republic of China.
The National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China ( 中国基督教三自爱国运动委员会 ) and theChina Christian Council ( 中国基督教协会 ) are known in China as the lianghui (two organizations). Together they form the only state-sanctioned (registered) Protestant church in mainland China (see also: Protestantism in China and Christianity in China.) - Wikipedia.
Just found details of the Shanghai Catholic Church for the post before last.
It was built in 1918.
