Yes, I sortta agrees that NO one ideology, be it political , economic or religious can truely represents the whole of China and the Chinese people despite the fantasy from the West that their Anglo saxon Christian political, economic and religious will be accepted widely in China .
The psychological, cultural makeup of the country and the people are not geared towards a unified single entity perhaps only by nominal Confucianism ( already mixed with sinicised Buddhism and Taoism), and maybe a very subtle acceptance of a unified nation but ONLY on their own individual terms. During the Taiping rebellion, the so called Christianity these people professed were a motley mixed of Christianity, Confucianism and even Taoism with posessions,trance and ceremonies coupled with yellow dragon gowns and seals. The western missionaries initially excited by these "Christian developments" were startled, shocked and disappointed to see long haired men participating in very ungodly "Christian" ceremonies and believing in a theology that bear similarities to spiritual Taoism than Christianity. There were chinese titles of heavenly father, brother and Hong Xiuquan himself and several Tian Wangs or heavenly kings, a reminiscine of the Chinese Buddhist religion.
For the chinese and the Qing officials, the Taipings were nothing more than rampaging rebels adopting spiritual stuffs to attract uneducated peasents to assist them in toppling the government like the many during past dynasties, the Yellow Turbans, the various buddhist sects eg White Lotus rebels and Chinese Muslims rebels in the southwest. For the Chinese, the fear of Christianity lies not really in the fact that they accept something so "un-chinese religiously and culturally" but more on the possible fact that a institutionalised foreign religion that is tightly controlled,religiously( n therefore mentally able to sway peoples beliefs of the supernatural) with huge congregation that becomes distinct with the larger community and leaders that has become so powerful..eg FaLungGong. Naturally this will come to the attention of the Chinese govts and like FLG, the Taipings was crushed, the leaders killed and so like were many of the religious inspired rebellions in Chinese history. The Chinese do not fear and rubbished e so call spiritual retribution or karma in crushing spiritual and religious movts as Confucianism all along taught morality is secular.
I also feel that the Chinese, (except maybe for the Chinese Muslims) were not naturally inclined towards religions in the context of the larger political and nationality basis. Many turn to religion for short term secular gains etc to earn a living, to escape poverty, to get rich and less of accepting religion wholeheartedly as a duty that they can die for their faith. So the Chinese is very pragmatic and remain so till today. For centuries, the Chinese govt understands the traditional Chinese Buddhists and Taoists treated their faiths as something inherently cultural and private and will not use these two traditional religions to topple governments or sway public opinions unless someone with ulterior motive hijack these two faiths which the Chinese govt will distinguished these as cults and sects, not accepted chinese traditional n cultural state-sanctioned religions in that sense...eg the white lotus sect is treated as a xie jiao or deviationist faith, strictly un-Buddhist.
The Chinese fully understand the strong nature of monotheistic religions like Christianity and Islam and therefore the Communist party tightly control Christianity in the form of state control Self Patriotic Protestant and catholic churches and does not allow foreign Christian missionaries influence such as Vatican eg. So it will disallow religion with a "strong theological influence, a massive centralised congregation and powerful charismatic religious leaders to become too powerful enough to threaten the state and its policies. Unfortunately, some of the churches in China fall into that red line.
So when the Taipings were crushed, Christianity also declined rapidly and many return back to their traditional faiths. The Chinese will not want to commit suicide for religious faiths as religions is something they want to gain secular benefits. When Mao crushed religion during the Cultural revolution, many chinese went along. But when this mayhen ended, they retrieve their statues and rebuild their temples and everything went back to the same. Other prefer to remain atheists. Christianity comes into China like many in East Asian societies like Skorea and Spore through intensed and determined proselytisation and their preferred visibility often invite attention from the western media and chinese govt alike. Unlike the Taoists or Buddhists who treat religions less strictly and more cultural ( even accepting Mao as a Buddhist deity and doesn't care much that the "atheist" Communist party as their govt and therefore not a threat to the CCP), the Churches are more confrontational to voice their disagreements and opposition to the Chinese govts esp when their faiths are seen as being threatened or comes into conflict with the chinese govt national policies. So in a see saw way, the chinese state sees them as potentially subversive and they see the state as offensive to their faith...leading to many confrontations ( The Chinese Govt went ahead to tear down the Sanjiang Church in Wenzhou after the congregation staged massive protests). Many ordinary chinese would also disagreed with the extreme actions of religious proselytisation or religious fervour as culturally the Chinese are naturally tolerant of all faiths and which the Chinese govts would use it to their favour and which explain why the Chinese govt policies on religion ep Christianity generally gain less interest among the chinese people compared to tangible ones like economic and social policies.
As such I am not sure if as the Professor Yang predicted will China become the world largest Christian nation. The psyche of the Chinese might made this quite impossible and even if the numbers are there , the population of other Chinese professing other faiths esp their own traditional ones may be staggering compared to the Christians but less visible, less intrusive, less distinct much like the silent majority. Western journalists loves to make a story out of the Christian churches and less on the visible traditional chinese ones many will see when they visited temples and festivals along the streets in China today for reasons quite obvious.
The psychological, cultural makeup of the country and the people are not geared towards a unified single entity perhaps only by nominal Confucianism ( already mixed with sinicised Buddhism and Taoism), and maybe a very subtle acceptance of a unified nation but ONLY on their own individual terms. During the Taiping rebellion, the so called Christianity these people professed were a motley mixed of Christianity, Confucianism and even Taoism with posessions,trance and ceremonies coupled with yellow dragon gowns and seals. The western missionaries initially excited by these "Christian developments" were startled, shocked and disappointed to see long haired men participating in very ungodly "Christian" ceremonies and believing in a theology that bear similarities to spiritual Taoism than Christianity. There were chinese titles of heavenly father, brother and Hong Xiuquan himself and several Tian Wangs or heavenly kings, a reminiscine of the Chinese Buddhist religion.
For the chinese and the Qing officials, the Taipings were nothing more than rampaging rebels adopting spiritual stuffs to attract uneducated peasents to assist them in toppling the government like the many during past dynasties, the Yellow Turbans, the various buddhist sects eg White Lotus rebels and Chinese Muslims rebels in the southwest. For the Chinese, the fear of Christianity lies not really in the fact that they accept something so "un-chinese religiously and culturally" but more on the possible fact that a institutionalised foreign religion that is tightly controlled,religiously( n therefore mentally able to sway peoples beliefs of the supernatural) with huge congregation that becomes distinct with the larger community and leaders that has become so powerful..eg FaLungGong. Naturally this will come to the attention of the Chinese govts and like FLG, the Taipings was crushed, the leaders killed and so like were many of the religious inspired rebellions in Chinese history. The Chinese do not fear and rubbished e so call spiritual retribution or karma in crushing spiritual and religious movts as Confucianism all along taught morality is secular.
I also feel that the Chinese, (except maybe for the Chinese Muslims) were not naturally inclined towards religions in the context of the larger political and nationality basis. Many turn to religion for short term secular gains etc to earn a living, to escape poverty, to get rich and less of accepting religion wholeheartedly as a duty that they can die for their faith. So the Chinese is very pragmatic and remain so till today. For centuries, the Chinese govt understands the traditional Chinese Buddhists and Taoists treated their faiths as something inherently cultural and private and will not use these two traditional religions to topple governments or sway public opinions unless someone with ulterior motive hijack these two faiths which the Chinese govt will distinguished these as cults and sects, not accepted chinese traditional n cultural state-sanctioned religions in that sense...eg the white lotus sect is treated as a xie jiao or deviationist faith, strictly un-Buddhist.
The Chinese fully understand the strong nature of monotheistic religions like Christianity and Islam and therefore the Communist party tightly control Christianity in the form of state control Self Patriotic Protestant and catholic churches and does not allow foreign Christian missionaries influence such as Vatican eg. So it will disallow religion with a "strong theological influence, a massive centralised congregation and powerful charismatic religious leaders to become too powerful enough to threaten the state and its policies. Unfortunately, some of the churches in China fall into that red line.
So when the Taipings were crushed, Christianity also declined rapidly and many return back to their traditional faiths. The Chinese will not want to commit suicide for religious faiths as religions is something they want to gain secular benefits. When Mao crushed religion during the Cultural revolution, many chinese went along. But when this mayhen ended, they retrieve their statues and rebuild their temples and everything went back to the same. Other prefer to remain atheists. Christianity comes into China like many in East Asian societies like Skorea and Spore through intensed and determined proselytisation and their preferred visibility often invite attention from the western media and chinese govt alike. Unlike the Taoists or Buddhists who treat religions less strictly and more cultural ( even accepting Mao as a Buddhist deity and doesn't care much that the "atheist" Communist party as their govt and therefore not a threat to the CCP), the Churches are more confrontational to voice their disagreements and opposition to the Chinese govts esp when their faiths are seen as being threatened or comes into conflict with the chinese govt national policies. So in a see saw way, the chinese state sees them as potentially subversive and they see the state as offensive to their faith...leading to many confrontations ( The Chinese Govt went ahead to tear down the Sanjiang Church in Wenzhou after the congregation staged massive protests). Many ordinary chinese would also disagreed with the extreme actions of religious proselytisation or religious fervour as culturally the Chinese are naturally tolerant of all faiths and which the Chinese govts would use it to their favour and which explain why the Chinese govt policies on religion ep Christianity generally gain less interest among the chinese people compared to tangible ones like economic and social policies.
As such I am not sure if as the Professor Yang predicted will China become the world largest Christian nation. The psyche of the Chinese might made this quite impossible and even if the numbers are there , the population of other Chinese professing other faiths esp their own traditional ones may be staggering compared to the Christians but less visible, less intrusive, less distinct much like the silent majority. Western journalists loves to make a story out of the Christian churches and less on the visible traditional chinese ones many will see when they visited temples and festivals along the streets in China today for reasons quite obvious.
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