Chinese Christianity Revisited: The John Sung Papers and Chinese Evangelistic Materials - Sponsored by CEAL Committee on Chinese Materials

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

John Sung (1901-1944) was a prominent Christian evangelist whose enduring influence is still recognized through East Asia. His reputation has long been based primarily on his autobiography and excerpts from his diaries that his daughter Levi Sung selected and published. The correspondence, writings, and extensive diaries of Sung recently acquired by the Yale Divinity Library shed new light on his life and work, as well as the historical development of Christianity in Republican China. Exploring the John Sung papers and Chinese evangelistic sources, this panel approaches Sung and Chinese evangelists from multiple perspectives. Estelle-Holmer’s paper offers a detailed overview of the John Sung papers and discusses issues such as access, preservation, and digitization associated with the papers. Li's paper compares published diary extracts and original diaries from Sung, and examines five entries to exemplify alterations, deletions, and inaccuracies in the extracts. Ireland's paper uses Sung's diary entries from his two-week revival campaign in Tianjin in 1934 to tease out how Sung’s revival meetings intersected with different classes in the city, and what this might tell us about class and conversion during the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937). Wu's paper juxtaposes Sung with Protestant Christian revival and other Chinese evangelists of his time, and broadens the study by exploring contemporary Chinese evangelistic materials routinely neglected by research and academic libraries in US. Collectively, the panel challenges received interpretations of Sung, and provides important new insight for research into Christianity in Republican and contemporary China.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizer

• Tang Li, Yale University

Chair

• Ryan Dunch, University of Alberta

Individual Presentations

• John Sung Papers at the Yale Divinity Library - Suzanne Estelle-Holmer, Yale University

• The Journal Once Lost: A Comparative Study of Published Diary Extracts and Original Diaries from John Sung - Tang Li, Yale University

• Class and Conversion: An Exploration in the Journals of John Sung - Daryl Ireland, Boston University

• Contextualizing John Sung: Protestant Christian Revival and Chinese Evangelists - Xian Wu, Michigan State University

Discussant

• Chloë Starr, Yale Divinity School