Benutzer:Shi Annan/Tian Feng
Vorlage:Good article Vorlage:Short description Vorlage:Use dmy dates Vorlage:Infobox magazine Vorlage:Infobox Chinese Tian Feng: The Magazine of the Protestant Churches in China[1] (Vorlage:Lang-zh[2][3]) is the organ of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), the state-sanctioned body of Protestant Christians in China, and the most widely circulated Christian magazine in the country.
The magazine was founded in 1945 as Tian Feng: The Christian Weekly by Y. T. Wu and others as an initially liberal Christian publication published by the YMCA. In 1948 he published an article titled "The Present Day Tragedy of Christianity" criticizing foreign missionaries, for which he was fired as editor. Tian Feng became the official organ of the newly founded TSPM in 1949Vorlage:Efn representing Protestants in the communist government's official religious policy. The magazine would side with the government, suppress unapproved Christian sects, and discredit theologians who were out of line. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, writing on theology became increasingly rare, and the magazine was discontinued in 1964. Following the Cultural Revolution, Tian Feng returned with a new inaugural issue on 20 October 1980. While still promoting officially sanctioned religious policy, Tian Feng occasionally expresses hopes for ecumenism or criticizes certain impediments to the freedom of religion in China.
History
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Tian Feng was founded in 1945 as Tian Feng: The Christian Weekly.[4] It was initially published in Chongqing by the YMCA and had liberal Christian leanings.[3][5]Vorlage:Sfn Its founders included Y. T. Wu,[3] who became the first editor. Some of Wu's most important theological articles were published in the journal.[3]Vorlage:Sfn These included "The Present Day Tragedy of Christianity",[6] which was published around Easter of 1948. In the article, he criticized foreign missionary activities in China and equated Protestantism with exploitative capitalism; he called them "two expressions of the same society". As a result, Wu was fired from his position as an editor of Tian Feng.Vorlage:Sfn
Organ of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. Tian Feng writings in the late 1940s and early 1950s sometimes exhibited enthusiasm about the prospects of the new society brought about by the Chinese Communist Revolution.Vorlage:Sfn Chinese Protestants ceased to credit foreign missionaries for their religious and humanitarian work in China and instead started criticizing them for being tools of Western imperialism.Vorlage:Sfn In 1949, Tian Feng became the official organ of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM).[3]Vorlage:Efn That year it published an open letter signed by 19 Chinese Christian leaders calling for the perceived relationship of foreign missionaries and foreign governments to be exposed.Vorlage:Sfn The Chinese State Affairs Council had initiated a campaign to denounce foreign missionaries in 1951. Chinese Christian leaders now had to defile their former co-workers and confidants.Vorlage:Sfn Many such statements of denouncements were published in Tian Feng.Vorlage:Sfn Y. T. Wu, too, had to make a public confession in the magazine for not having supported the communists enough.Vorlage:Sfn Others also wrote their confessions in Tian Feng, but were purged. This was the fate of Vorlage:Illm, the leader of the independent True Jesus Church, who confessed in 1952,Vorlage:Sfn but ended up in prison.[7] In 1954, Tian Feng was used to discredit Wang Ming-Dao,Vorlage:Sfn a prominent evangelist who was determined to keep his Christian Tabernacle church out of the TSPM.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn He had himself previously published uncompromising essays in the magazine.Vorlage:Sfn In 1956 it was the turn of Watchman Nee, a leader of the anti-communist local churches affiliation who had been long persecuted by the government, to be attacked in an editorial of Tian Feng.Vorlage:Sfn Hu Feng, a literary theorist who was opposed to politicization of literature,Vorlage:Sfn was also discredited on its pages, in 1955.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Clear
From "The Christian Manifesto" to the Cultural Revolution
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]During the 1950s and 1960s the contents of the magazine were markedly political.[3] It contained views of the newly founded TSPM and its "unique synthesis of Christianity and nationalism".Vorlage:Sfn On 28 July 1950, the Chinese government set out "The Christian Manifesto",Vorlage:Sfn largely masterminded by Wu,Vorlage:Sfn that urged Chinese Christians to pledge allegiance to the new People's Republic.Vorlage:Sfn Tian Feng closely followed the success of the manifesto and the number of its signatories that in 1954 had reached 400,000, although this figure has since been disputed.Vorlage:Sfn During the 1950s it also published photos of the achievements of the Great Leap Forward.Vorlage:Sfn In addition to overtly political material, Tian Feng in its early TSPM years provided an "open forum" for adapting Christianity to the new communist China and some positive results were yielded in public discussions published in the magazine.[8] At times, Tian Feng even acted as the "agony aunt" of Christian communities, coaching them on everyday practice.Vorlage:Sfn Local pastors and seminary professors would answer questions submitted by congregations.Vorlage:Sfn One article, for instance, gave advice about whether portraits of Mao Zedong needed to be hung on walls in churches.Vorlage:Sfn Meanwhile, the publication of essays that continued to condemn missionaries as imperialists continued.Vorlage:Sfn
With the mounting ultra-leftist tendencies that would ultimately lead to the Cultural Revolution, Christian activities became constrained. Although Tian Feng continued publication for the time being, its publication of theological articles ended in 1959.Vorlage:Sfn
Although the political flavor was toned down from 1960 on, the magazine remained a "mouthpiece of the government". At the same time, issues became progressively thinner until publication ceased in 1964.Vorlage:Sfn The paper was continued after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Its first new printing was on 20 October 1980 with 15,000 copies.[9]Vorlage:Sfn
Throughout the years, Tian Feng acted as an important platform of publishing for K. H. Ting, the chairman of TSPM.Vorlage:Sfn
Most recently, since the TSPM and China Christian Council (CCC) have begun their controversial "Reconstruction of Theological Thinking" project, Tian Feng has lost subscribers.[10]
Format
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Tian Feng is now the most popular Christian magazine in China[3] and is distributed on a nationwide basis.[11] At times, it has been the only such magazine available. It is the only Protestant magazine that is sold abroad.[3]
Since publishing restarted in 1980, Tian Feng has been a monthly magazine.[3] It is published jointly by the National Committee of the TSPM and CCC in Shanghai.[12] For CCC, its publishing activities are run by its Tian Feng Editorial Committee.[13]
The magazine disseminates the views of TSPM and CCC as well as religious policy of the Chinese government, along with devotional articles.[3] Typical contents also include poems, color photographs,Vorlage:Sfn church news, sermons, and Bible studies.[14] Recent issues have shown a widening of its scope and an "outward-looking ecumenism" of the state-sanctioned Protestant churches of China.[13][15] The magazine also publishes stories about coping with economic change in China, family problems and friction between different churches.Vorlage:Sfn Recent themes have included criticism of Pentecostalism, cults, and the unofficial hymnal Canaan Hymns.Vorlage:Sfn On the other hand, the magazine has also criticized the government and its State Administration for Religious Affairs for curtailing religious freedom.[11]
Tian Feng is distributed by local Three-Self Committees and Christian CouncilsVorlage:Sfn and has a circulation of 130,000.[16] Subscribers include overseas Chinese churches.Vorlage:Sfn Its editor-in-chief is Mei Kangjun.Vorlage:Sfn Previous editors include Shen Derong and Shen Cheng'en.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn
The magazine is published in Chinese.[17] Since 1991, the Hong Kong-based Amity Foundation, aligned with the TSPM and CCC, has published bi-monthly digests of the magazine in English.Vorlage:Sfn In 2002, Tian Feng was given an award for being one of the best Shanghai-based magazines.[13]
See also
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- History of the People's Republic of China
- List of magazines in China
- Political theology in China
- Protestant missions in China
- Protestantism in China
- Tiān
Notes
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]References
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]Works cited
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]- David Aikman: Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power. Regnery Publishing, Washington 2012, ISBN 978-1-59698-652-7 (google.com).
- Daniel H. Bays: Chinese Protestant Christianity Today. In: The China Quarterly. 174. Jahrgang, 2003, ISSN 0305-7410, S. 488–504, doi:10.1017/S0009443903000299.
- John Craig William Keating: A Protestant Church in Communist China: Moore Memorial Church Shanghai 1949–1989. Leigh University Press, Bethlehem, PA 2012, ISBN 978-1-61146-091-9 (google.com).
- Chloë Starr: Chinese Theology: Text and Context. Yale University Press, New Haven 2016, ISBN 978-0-300-22493-1 (google.com).
- Britt Towery: Christianity in Today's China: Taking Root Downward, Bearing Fruit Upward. The Tao Foundation Missionary, 2000, ISBN 978-1-58721-410-3 (google.com).
- Philip L. Wickeri: Seeking the Common Ground: Protestant Christianity, the Three-Self Movement, and China's United Front. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene 2011, ISBN 978-1-61097-529-2 (google.com).
- Philip L. Wickeri: Reconstructing Christianity in China: K.H. Ting and the Chinese Church. Orbis Books, Maryknoll 2015, ISBN 978-1-60833-366-0 (google.com).
Further reading
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]- Emily Dunn: Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China. BRILL, Leiden 2015, ISBN 978-90-04-29725-8.
External links
[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]- Vorlage:Official website Vorlage:In lang
- English translations of articles at Amity Foundation
- Photos of early issues at Qingqdao Church
- Tian Feng at CNKI Vorlage:In lang
- Tian Feng at Baidu Baike Vorlage:In lang
- ↑ Barbara Hoster Si, Dirk Kuhlmann, Zbigniew Wesolowski: Rooted in Hope: China - Religion - Christianity / Festschrift in Honor of Roman Malek S.V.D. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Taylor & Francis, 2017, ISBN 978-1-351-67278-8, S. XLI (google.com).
- ↑ ? (Originaltitel: zh:天风．中国基督教杂志杂志官网). In: zhazhi.com. Abgerufen am 29. Mai 2017 (chinesisch).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Frederik Fällman: Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. Hrsg.: Edward L. Davis. Taylor & Francis, Oxon 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-77716-2, Tianfeng, S. 832 (google.com).
- ↑ Dianfeng = The Christian weekly. (Journal, magazine, 1945) [WorldCat.org]. OCLC 246726263.
- ↑ Oi Ki Ling: The Changing Role of the British Protestant Missionaries in China, 1945-1952. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison 1999, ISBN 978-0-8386-3776-0, S. 17 (google.com).
- ↑ Peter Tze Ming Ng: Chinese Christianity: An Interplay Between Global and Local Perspectives. BRILL, Leiden 2012, ISBN 978-90-04-22574-9, S. 208 (google.com).
- ↑ Donald E. Hoke (Hrsg.): The Church in Asia. Moody Press, Chicago 1975, ISBN 978-0-8024-1543-1, S. 173 (google.com).
- ↑ Deng Fucun: Christianity and Chinese Culture. Hrsg.: Miikka Ruokanen, Paulos Huang. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids 2010, ISBN 978-0-8028-6556-4, The Basis for the Reconstruction of Chinese Theological Thinking, S. 299 (google.com).
- ↑ ? (Originaltitel: zh:中国基督教三自爱国运动五十周年纪念影集, deutsch: Three-self patriotic movement of the Protestant churches in China). 中国基督敎三自爱国运动委员会, Shanghai 2000, S. 4 (google.com).
- ↑ Zhu Xiaohong: Christianity and Chinese Culture. Hrsg.: Miikka Ruokanen, Paulos Huang. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids 2010, ISBN 978-0-8028-6556-4, Call for Dialogue and Cooperation: Reflections on Jianshe or the Reconstruction of Theological Thinking, S. 320 (google.com).
- ↑ a b James Miller: Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies. ABC-CLIO, 2006, ISBN 978-1-85109-626-8, S. 314 (google.com).
- ↑ Allan Anderson, Edmond Tang: Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia. OCMS, 2005, ISBN 978-1-870345-43-9, S. 431 (google.com).
- ↑ a b c Chen Meilin: The Publication Work of the Church in China. Heritage Congregational Church, Februar 2002, abgerufen am 31. Mai 2017.
- ↑ P. Richard Bohr: State and Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting. In: Practical Anthropology. 11. Jahrgang, Nr. 3, 1983, ISSN 0032-633X, S. 330, doi:10.1177/009182968301100305.
- ↑ Nathan Faries: The "Inscrutably Chinese" Church: How Narratives and Nationalism Continue to Divide Christianity. Lexington Books, Plymouth 2010, ISBN 978-0-7391-3959-2, S. 279 (google.com).
- ↑ Summary of World Broadcasts: Asia, Pacific: Issues 3920–3933. British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service, London 2000, S. G–8 (google.com).
- ↑ Tian feng. (eJournal / eMagazine, 1981) [WorldCat.org]. OCLC 182562933.