I would like to point everyone to a blog written by the angry twins, who, for all practical purposes it seems, are two Chinese American Catholics. It’s actually a really cool blog because they talk so much about their faith, their heritage, and then American culture. What doesn’t surprise me is how incredibly pious they seem to be, especially based on research I’ve done so far. The thing that DOES surprise me about it is some of the underground stuff they talk about so freely, naming names and such.

Case in point, these pictures of the underground church. Check them out.

The Diocese of Hong Kong mirrored the Chinese Church up until 1951 when Mao kicked all foreign missionaries out of China. When Pope Pius XII created the national Church in China in 1946, Hong Kong also rose from an apostolic vicariate to a Diocese. Since Hong Kong was outside China, the Church there never broke away. During the 1980′s, the Vatican tried to use the cultural similarities between those from Hong Kong and China to bridge the gap with the CPA. When Bishop Wu of Hong Kong went on a state visit to China, thousands of Chinese Catholics flocked to him seeking blessings. Hong Kong is also really important from the 90′s onward, because even with the annexation of Hong Kong, the Church in Hong Kong hasn’t changed and still recognizes the Pope.

The Vatican muffed a few opportunities to repair relations with the CPA on several occasions. A big one happened in 1981, when the Pope decided that in light of increasing religious freedom in China following the Cultural Revolution, he would appoint Bishop Dominic Deng Yiming of the Guangzhou Diocese as the Archbishop of Guangzhou. Guangzhou is in southern China, near Hong Kong. This was a minor administrative affair that was mainly affecting terminology, but this move shook the foundations of Sino-Vatican relations. The Chinese government immediately perceived it as imperialism all over again. Archbishop Deng was actually forced into exile after this incident.

When Bishop Wu visited he was prohibited from saying mass, and the CPA became furious over a minor church affair. China perceived Hong Kong as a dangerous southern foothold and allowed that fear to govern other CPA policy.

As China has always seen it, Catholicism is a foreign influence. Therefore, I think this article reveals a lot about Chinese perceptions of the Catholic faith as well as how Catholics dealt with the Mao government.

I really think that the theme park itself says something about the world these kids live in. The fact that “you can see the world without ever leaving Beijing” is an idea that sells because, ironically, most Chinese people will be lucky to even see the park, much less the actual real world. The parody destroys the reality, and things like the real Eiffel Tower or London Bridge seem nonexistent or at best far away vague concepts they will never see anyway. The best case is when one of the characters remarks that the model of Manhattan still has the twin towers, which were bombed on 9/11. The other guy just turns to him and says in their model they still have them, ending the discussion.

I like the music and the one cartoon so far in this movie, if for no other reason than it really reinforces the illusory theme of this generation.

Going a little further, I noticed people’s lives seem culturally and even linguistically different in the cities. Lots of young girls are rejecting their traditional rural livelihoods after moving to Beijing. So, are people in the country becoming their own subaltern while migrant workers from the country in the city are another subaltern altogether?

Just thinking.

Included was a collection of Papal documents related specifically to the CPCA, which may prove to be an extremely useful primary source. I was poking around on the web and kept coming across all these audio recordings, but of course I don’t speak Chinese, so I’ll take any English source I can find.

Going off what she said, I completely agree that it’s easy to see how widespread unemployment is in Shenyang. We kept seeing everyone they interviewed talking about how much they wanted their kids to get a good education and leave the village/not work in a factory like they had to. I think right now China still lacks the human capital to truly move away from a command economy, but the hope people place in their children may be exactly what China needs to do so in another generation.

I think a combination of factors have come together to make this necessary. The iron rice bowl came at a different time in China’s history where the factories people worked at produced goods that the economy could use. When the documentary started, China was caught between the modernization of 30 years ago and the postmodern digital age of the West. Workers were idle and the factories no longer produced efficient goods the economy actually needed. Economics influences politics, as we saw in the documentary. The 3 year ultimatum will probably drive a lot of factories to close, but it’s a necessary step before a generation of white collar workers can fill in China’s economy.

I could be totally wrong, so we’ll see what happens in the rest of the documentary. Either way, I think it could explain China’s slow but steady progress toward a capitalist infrastructure.

Just for a review, here is the article.

Deng’s economic reforms lead China on a double path of Communism and Capitalism, but in recent years Capitalism is winning out.  I think it’s important that China is proud of it’s modernization, but the Chinese are still reluctant about admitting they have accumulated wealth. The documentary touched on the biggest problem which the article mentions: corruption. The Post mentions tax collection is still not standardized and so Chinese citizens may fear reporting their income, but I also think it’s probable there are ideological layovers from the Mao era even among the Capitalists. Many people want to flaunt their money but hold back from doing so. The article says that the first Capitalists in the 80′s knew they would be criticized and so they were already the people who had nothing left to lose, but now China’s economy is growing rapidly and more people are benefitting.

The last segment of the documentary today mentioned Deng broke with the expectations of the students. I’m looking forward to learning more about it and how this affected China’s economy in the 90′s.

I had a lot along those lines to go with about a distorted Catholic structure caused by a lack of papal authority within China, most noticeably was Richard Madsen’s argument in his book China’s Catholics. However, Madsen wrote his work nearly 10 years ago, and despite continued tensions with the Vatican, I believe at least one of my sources shows things may be improving.

Case in point, Melinda Liu and Duncan Hewitt’s article in Newsweek International entitled “A ‘Single’ Church; Working with a ‘breakthrough’ bishop, the Vatican is drawing closer to Beijing.” When I first read this article two or three weeks ago, I missed a few important things it was suggesting. Aloysius Jin is a bishop in the official Patriotic Church who has recently begun repairing ties with the Vatican by seeking papal approval for his appointments first before asking the Chinese government.

I think this tells me a lot about the CPCA clergy themselves, but it also says a lot about a potential rapprochement between the Vatican and Beijing.

The Cultural Revolution essentially halted all official religious practices in China for a period of roughly ten years. The state religions, including the Patriotic Catholic Association, were closed. Therefore, during that time in China Catholics went underground to the illegal Vatican-approved Church if they continued to practice at all. When the Cultural Revolution ended, the CPCA returned, and so did many clergy and parishoners.

It’s the culture from this moment onward that I want to focus on. I really think there’s something here about why the clergy and other faithful returned to the CPCA. Some of the research I’ve done for this points to some unusual trends evolving in Catholic life there. The strained relationship with the Pope within the CPCA and garbled communication in the underground church with the Vatican has distorted the usual moral hierarchy. Here’s an overview of the sources I’ve found so far:

Chia, Edmund. ”Everybody wants a piece of China, including Christians.” National Catholic Reporter 42.14 (Feb 3, 2006): 15.

Ching, Julia. Probing China’s Soul: Religion, Politics, and Protest in the People’s Republic. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, 1990.

Elegant, Simon. “Battle of the Bishops.” Time 167.20 (May 15, 2006): 35.

________. “The War For China’s Soul.” Time 168.9 (August 28, 2006): 40.

Fuzeng, Xing. “Church-State Relations in Contemporary China and the Development of Protestant Christianity.” China Study Journal (December 2003).

Liu, Melinda and Duncan Hewitt. “A ‘Single’ Church; Working with a ‘breakthrough’ bishop, the Vatican is drawing closer to Beijing.” Newsweek International (Feb 13, 2006).

MacInnis, Donald E. Religious Policy and Practice in Communist China. New York, NY: The MacMillan Company, 1972.

Madsen, Richard. China’s Catholics. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1998.

Mooney, Paul. ”Nuns in China beaten in property dispute.” National Catholic Reporter 42.9 (Dec 23, 2005): 11.

“Prayers for China.” America 194.18 (May 22, 2006): 4.

Spiegel, Mickey. Freedom of Religion in China. Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch, 1992.

Wehrfritz, George and Katharina Hesse. “Diplomacy: Temptations of ‘Virgin Soil’; The Vatican is in the market for lost souls. China is looking for recognition. After the death of John Paul II, is a deal possible?” Newsweek (April 18, 2005): 36.

Yu, David C. Religion in Postwar China: A Critical Analysis and Annotated Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,             1994.