China: a striking plunge into the life of Christians, in the era of Xi Jinping

Christians in Xi Jinping China
by Michel Chambon de Clermont

Ed. Du Cerf, January 2025, 24 €

It is a somewhat unclassifiable editorial object, at the crossroads of history, theology, anthropology, geography or even politics. With more than twenty years of observation on the ground, the anthropologist Michel Chambon de Clermont offers, in his latest work, an exciting dive into the unknown daily life of Christians in China, at the time of Xi Jinping.

Destruction or reinforced surveillance of parishes, intimidation of religious leaders at the heart of an authoritarian regime … while the lifestyle of these ultra-minority believers today feeds concerns and certain fantasies abroad, the author Dress here a fine and nuanced portrait of a plural religious reality.

By anchoring the story in the Nanping District (Fujian), in the south-east of the country-a territory on size “Human”camped in a vast natural setting, where 4 % of Christians live -, it gradually deploys its analysis to encompass the major issues that cross the Catholic Church (both its branch faithful to Rome as that managed by Beijing) and Protestants (Adventists , from the Gospel …) of the Middle Empire.

Historical retrospective of local Christians – from the first wave of evangelization to the Maoist period, before tackling the more recent period, from 1979 to the present day – changes in prayer and devotion practices, societal commitment of the faithful, mutations of Catholicism in megalopolises, decryption of sino-vatican diplomatic relations… The panel of embraced themes is very wide.

A living and creative faith

Through this walk on the borders of the People’s Republic of China, we meet a whole gallery of characters, with extremely varied sociological profiles. Beware, thus, would nourish the temptation to want to reduce them under labels.

Whether it is “Madame Tang”, a dedicated Christian working as a laundress in a retirement home, “wenzhou patterns”, named after this network of entrepreneurs, some of whom mix faith and business, or these migrant catholics For the most part from the underground church which reinvent their religious practices by arriving in cities, we discover a multitude of figures testifying to a very lively and creative faith.

In different forms, the latter indeed appears capable of reinventing itself without losing its identity, in a movement of dialogue with traditional religions and with the current cultural context. As during the party of Thanksgiving Chinese, where officials of the Gospel Church, like the charismatic Pasteur Thomas Sun, explain that it is essential to “Say thank you to God in everything”, assuming to be inspired “From ancient China, where the fall festival was more important than the spring festival”.

Personal interpretations

Some may deplore that the aspect of the relations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Christian communities is not more explored, but this book seeks to avoid the pitfall of a only political or conflictual reading of the situation- “To present everything from the angle of a power relationship, to all over -sustain, we are only pouring out our fascinations or exorcising our repulsions with regard to the Chinese regime”justifies in this sense Michel Chambon.

At a time when China occupies an increasing place on the international scene, this accessible style work may interest widely. “Depending on whether you are a traveler, a believer, a sinologist, a sociologist or even a journalist, still warned the author as a preamble to this work, It is up to you to connect these pages and interpret what they tell you about Chinese society, the country of the country, the communist administration, the Church in China and the God of Christians ”.