Uniqueness of Christianity in China and Chinese Muslim

由于全球化发展越来越快，宗教也随着一起越来越壮大。本文将探讨基督教在中国与中国穆斯林的独特性，希望人类能更熟悉这两个宗教，他们可以选择更合适的来作为生活中的一部分。为了清楚地了解基督教和中国穆斯林，后介绍三部分，这是在中国分开的基督教，中国穆斯林 ，以及他们的独特性，与全世界的其他国家的不同。

I. Introduction

Increasingly quick is the speed of the appearance of a new religion due to the development of globalization and greater and greater is the number of human beings that have been puzzled about the differences among those various religions, currently it is of great urgency for human beings to explore the detailed differences between any two religions so that human beings can know more about those religions. Only when human beings have got access to the differences of those religions can they know more clearly about which religion they would like to follow. In this way, human beings can in the end choose the specific religion that is of their interest so that they can benefit more or less from within. 

And at present all kinds of religions tend to co-exist worldwide and they may have different connotations for the same religion under the context of different countries. Moreover, differences of two specific religions can be easily obtained through comparing and contrasting them in relevant factors. We can imagine that if we would like to compare any two specific religions, it is a must for us to specify both the religions themselves and the country that those two religions respectively belong to. Therefore this paper will explore the uniqueness of Christianity in China with the Chinese Muslim, hoping that human beings can be more familiar with both of these two religions and they can choose the more appropriate one to follow in their later life. In order to know clearly about the Christianity in China and the Chinese Muslim, three parts will subsequently be introduced, which are Christianity in China separately, the Chinese Muslim on its own as well as the uniqueness of they two by differing them from other countries in the whole world. 

II. Christianity in China

a. History

Christianity in China, always being referred to as Protestantism, is as well being mentioned to as evangelical in that it is a religion that preaches the gospel. It is recorded that it was in the nineteenth century that Christianity was officially introduced to China and it is now with 40,000,000 Christians in China now due to long-term development over years (Daniel H. Bays. 2012). But what has to be mentioned is that Christianity is developing and being circulated rather slowly for quite a long time due to the large differences between Chinese culture and the western culture at that time. Also, the Chinese government as well gave a fatal blow to all kinds of religions which involved Christianity without exception since the Chinese Communist Party was in charge of the politics in 1949. In the point of view of the Chinese Communist Party, the religions are included in the scope of superstition as tends to be unrealistic and may in the meantime gives human beings an illusion so that they can not really live a practical life. Such opinion seems to be quite traditional when taking it into consideration at present, but it is the normal phenomenon at that time. 

Or maybe it can be put in another way that the Chinese Communist Party holds that human beings are better to be down-to-earth so that they can better plan for their own life step by step and that those virtual religions will not bring you any benefit but may instead drive you away from your supposed life track so that you may not continually pursue your life goal. That is to say, the Chinese Communist Party thinks that religions will be dangerous for human beings with defects, which can be justified for its action to prevent the circulation of Christianity in China during that period. Therefore Christianity in China did not progress much then under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.   

Luckily, the Chinese government had adjusted the religious policy in 1980 when China was experiencing the reformation and open-up all over the whole country. After the religious adjustment, Christianity can later be normally worshiped in China together with other religions and the number of Chinese Christianity believers increased significantly ever since. What is out of human beings’ expectation is that the number of Chinese Christianity believers is even larger than that of the Buddhist believers. But it can be easily found out that there are more restrictions to the Chinese Christianity believers and clergies under the management of the Chinese government when compared with the western Christian countries, which can be naturally realized through the careful observation of the administrative measures that the government takes toward all kinds of religious affairs either small or large. 

Maybe the constitution’s emphasizing on the freedom of each and every citizen to choose their own desired religion and belief in those western countries has to a certain degree determined that western countries will have fewer and looser restrictions toward the Chinese Christianity believers and clergies (Wu Annie. 2015). However, at present the number of professional clergies is still relatively small so that it can be hard to meet the growing demand for the great majority of the Chinese Christianity believers. Thus it can be predicted that more and more professional clergies need to be trained and cultivated in order to satisfy the increasingly large number of the Chinese Christianity believers in recent years. And it is hoped that the Chinese Christianity can sooner or later win the support and approval of other people that do not worship it. Or maybe I can put it in another way that it is human beings’ wish that all the human beings can completely eliminate their own bias on it one day even though they do not worship it. That is to say, the rationale why they do not worship does not mean that they hold bias on it but that they have their own freedom to choose the specific religion that they would like to follow. 

b. Beliefs and Worship

According to the Chinese Christianity teachings, it reads that the believers can only worship the God — the sole Lord — while they can not worship idols. So we can have a fair knowledge that it is to a great degree conflicting with various Chinese traditions with “to worship the ancestors” being taken as an example. As a matter of fact, Chinese tradition to worship the ancestors is aimed at expressing respect to the deceased parents and ancestors, which is not against the church’s faith at all in whatever way. Therefore the Chinese Christianity can then be worshipped by more and more people step by step around the whole country. 

Currently among the provinces in mainland China, the provinces that are with a high proposition of the Chinese Christians mainly include the following ones: Anhui Province, Zhejiang Province, Fujian Province, Henan Province, Hebei Province, Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Yunan etc (G. Wright Doyle. 2006). These Chinese Christians will take part in the parties held at religious sites every Sunday that have been registered by the government to worship Christianity and they will in the meanwhile get together at some places that have not been registered legally as are held out by some believers themselves. It can be put in this way that the participation of those parties can be regarded as one of the common ways of worshipping Christianity and in the meantime it can be better for the affection contact among all the Christianity believers who can keep in close touch with each other through the mutual cooperation in those activities held on the get-togethers. It is easy to understand in that the active participation of those activities can motivate the great majority believer’s high spirit and their sense of belonging and sense of honor at the same time. By this way they can always remember that they are personally a Christian and they have to protect the interests of the Christianity at any time whenever human beings are objecting or despising it. 

c. Criticism and Apologetics

Every coin has two sides and this case fits for all things. So we can easily imagine that human beings will as well hold criticism and apologetics toward the Chinese Christianity on this aspect or that. Generally speaking, the criticism of it mainly focuses on the existence of god and the almighty power it is endowed with by the great majority of human beings. That is to say, these people who have criticized the Chinese Christianity hold that human beings should pay enough efforts to something that they desire to accomplish and they should try as hard as they can to successfully complete them. They think that only depending on the sole power of the god will make no sense and the almighty power of the god just makes no sense, leading to the result that human beings should be down-to-earth and practical so that they can better fulfill their own life goal. 

   As for the apologetics toward the Chinese Christianity, it majorly concentrates on that the existence of the god can make human beings hold a value in their life and they will never give up whenever they are confronted with whatever difficulties. The rationale why such phenomenon can be realized is that human beings will believe that they are under the blessing of god and all their present difficulties will be smoothly eliminated as long as they can stick to the last moment.   

III. Chinese Muslim

a. History

The history of the Chinese Muslim can also be understood as the history of the Hui nationality and the development of those two aforementioned terms are as well closely interrelated with each other. By the middle of the seventh century, a large number of Persian and Arabian merchants came to some Chinese coastal cities, such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou as well as other coastal cities, and mainland Changan, Kaifeng and other places by sea and land. Later they settled in those places and they gradually formed the Hui nationality, which is also right the point where the Chinese Muslim came into being (The Muslim Observer. 2015). 

It has been found out that the number of the Chinese Muslims has increased explosively from 1949 till today. And the concrete statistics shows that the number of the Chinese Muslims has increased by thirty times within only sixty years, the increase speed of which is so quick that the number of the Chinese Muslims is now much bigger than that of the Han people. To put it more specifically, China is only with less than 2,000,000 Muslims before liberation and the National Islamic Church statistics in 2003 is 46,000,000. While what is out of our expectation is that the number of the Chinese Muslims approaches 1,000,000,000 and almost all of them are young and strong. That is to say, these young and strong youths should have been regarded as the main contributing factors of the whole country and they are significantly critical for the build-up of the whole nation in a way or another. While the fact turns out that they develop to be Muslims and that is the reason why more and more Chinese people are concerned with the future of China as they are afraid of the coming of turmoil caused by those Chinese Muslims. I have to admit that if the number of the Chinese Muslims keeps increasing, then it is really possible for the arrival of the turmoil in the end. 

Human beings have as well argued that whenever China is put into a dilemma due to this matter or that, the Chinese Muslims will always take action to object the whole country together with others. And it has reached an agreement that China can take action to suitably confront the number of the Chinese Muslims so that the number of them will not increase too fast while it can not be in opposition with them. Otherwise the whole country may be put into a total mess due to the consistent resistance of all the Chinese Muslims. The reason why the number of the Chinese Muslims can be larger and larger and they can develop in such a fast speed lies in that the Han culture all the time advocates the all-inclusiveness of various kinds of religions and it is in support of the variety of all kinds of religions so as to make the Chinese culture more colorful. 

Luckily the Chinese government has issued some kind of policy to unite the Muslims of all nationalities to actively participate in the construction of socialist material and spiritual civilization and in the meantime report relevant news and major activities about Islam throughout the whole country. Moreover, the promotion of those policies can at the same time help carry forward the fine cultural tradition and moral tradition of Islam and the dissemination of Islamic academic and cultural knowledge. The detailed content of which primarily include the following ones: to propaganda and report the major activities together with the advanced characters and deeds of the Muslims of all nationalities as have contributed to the modernization of the whole country in fields like politics, economics, culture, education, technology as well as other fields; to introduce classics texts and related research result about doctrines, teaching methods, teaching history, teaching system as well as the ideological theory of famous scholars and teachers; to explore the church education and traditional teaching of mosque and in the meanwhile to introduce the history and the architectural style of the mosque and the art of Islamic calligraphy; to report the foreign friendly exchanges and academic and cultural exchanges that have been carried out by the Chinese Muslims. It can be easily found out that the publishing of these policies of the government is useful for the unification of Muslims of all nationalities and the advocating of the Islamic doctrines.

And the researches have found out that Ningxia province is one of the provinces that are with the most focused Muslim population, the rich Muslim customs amorous feelings and the most developed Islamic academic culture. There is no doubt that the Chinese Muslim is also popular in other places as well, but the popularity of it is the greatest in Ningxia province and it has not changed much over years. And it is a common sense that the Chinese Muslim is so popular that it has spread to almost each and every province within China and the number of the Chinese Muslims is increasing in an unprecedented speed. 

b. Beliefs 

The Chinese Muslims believe that there is the existence of Allah who is exclusive and is the only master in the universe as should be worshipped by all the Chinese Islam believers. Moreover, Allah is considered to be the one that created everything in the universe and sent for many prophets to convey the truth and approaching generations for fair liquidation. It is proclaimed that there is only Allah that should be worshipped and apart from him, there is no one else that should be worshipped. So we can have a fair knowledge that it has to a certain degree opposed the holiness of all the other statues and relics at that time apart from Allah. It has further claimed that if there are many masters between heaven and earth, then both the heaven and earth will be destroyed. So human beings have to ingrain in their mind of the concrete content of the Koran and sacral punishment so that they can better implement the essence of the Chinese Muslim. 

Or maybe it can be put in another way that the sole master in the universe is the core and foundation of Islamic faith and all the best praises belong to him. And absolute obedience to the will of Allah is the basic requirement of Islam. As a matter of fact, the specifications of the Chinese Islam have to a certain degree restrained human beings’ mind and they have as well decreased the opportunity for human beings to respect and worship others that have really shocked them. Thus from this sense, the beliefs of the Chinese Muslim are kind of unilateral and they have some negative connotations for human beings in a way or another. 

c. Criticism

Talking about human beings’ criticism about the Chinese Muslim, what has to be mentioned is that the quick increase of the Chinese Muslims will endanger the future of the whole country sooner or later. It can be understood through the involvement in the fact that the Chinese Muslims have always been a part that is in opposition of China whenever China is put into a dilemma due to this matter or that. Also the trust on the essence of the Chinese Muslim will in a certain sense restrict the development of human beings themselves in a way or another and it will not be good for their development in the long run. And human beings’ long-term practices of the Chinese Muslim will block the progress of the whole society as well in that these human beings are actually the main contributing factors of the society establishment. 

IV. Uniqueness of Christianity in China and the Chinese Muslim

a. Uniqueness of Christianity in China

Speaking of the uniqueness of Christianity in China, first and foremost comes that the intensity of the believers’ trust on it is much bigger than that of other countries in the whole world. Such kind of difference comes into being as most of the Chinese Christianity believers are not innate and they usually become a Chinese Christian at a certain age. As the Chinese environment of Christianity is not very obvious or even worse China is completely lack of the Christianity atmosphere, their enthusiasm will be much more dramatic when they have the chance to touch the Christian faith environment. Moreover, the Christianity in China also has a subversive effect toward the knowledge system of the Chinese Christianity followers. It can be easily justified by those remarks in the Bible in that if anything that has been learned in the past is in conflict with the Bible, then it can be directly discarded.

Apart from the aforementioned one, what has to be additionally listed is that such enthusiasm of them toward Christianity is very exquisite in the means of expression and it has engaged in the adult experience. While under the guidance of this enthusiasm, there will be more or less defects and delimitations of those Chinese Christians and I quite doubt that whether those issues advocated by the Christianity can fit for the current science and whether they can be used to explain science. Though it can not be denied that other countries will as well have fanatical Christians, it must be made clear that the enthusiasm of the Chinese Christians toward Christianity is much more obvious than that of the western countries. Or maybe it can be put in another way that the proposition of fanatical Christians in China is much higher than that of the western countries so that human beings can vividly feel the existence of the Chinese Christians.

The rationale why the proposition of fanatical Christians in China is much higher than that of the western countries is that almost all the Christians in western countries are innate and they will greatly be influenced by their surrounding people due to the foreign environment of the Christianity is strong. They will regularly or irregularly go to churches so that they become Christians as they are constantly influenced by what one consistently sees and hears. But just because of their being too familiar to the Christianity, then those people will regard the action of participating in church activities as if they are taking part in everyday activities with a relatively peaceful state of mind. Therefore they can naturally and gradually absorb other knowledge after they have completely understood the religious system that has been taught in the school. We can have a fair knowledge that they can easily explain Bible just as they are talking about a familiar topic but instead they do not need to pay too many efforts on it at all. Or maybe I can put it in another way that the god in their mind is just normal and common like air and water and they do not need to think it or praise it every time at all. 

With the Chinese Christians’ being with higher enthusiasm being mentioned at length in the above, what comes second at the list is that the Chinese Christians choose to be a Christian later in their life as they think that the god can help them and they can be completely out of pain as long as they become one member of Christians. Or maybe it can be put in another way that the participation of Christianity can be regarded as human beings’ pursuit of spiritual salvation. But what the Chinese Christians have performed has to a certain degree presented that Chinese people are with vanity and they will take advantage of the god’s almighty power to help them to make a fortune or something like that.

Blankly speaking, the motivation of Chinese people to become one member of the Christianity is that they hold that god’s almighty power can to a great extent help them realize their dream to be a millionaire one day. And they will think that the participation of the Chinese Christianity will make no harm to them at all but may instead bring them some benefits, so why they do not give it a try as it is just a matter that is with no risk at all. From this sense we can say that Chinese people’s such behavior is actually the opposition of the original meaning of the Christianity. While as for those Christians in western countries, they just take the Christianity as a belief as can make them feel happy and they can all the time live an easier life under the protection of God. And they pay attention to the Christianity itself but not the benefits that are hidden behind the Christianity. Maybe I can put it in this way that the Christians in western countries are real Christians and they are competent to be real Christians while the Chinese Christians are just the superficial ones as do not know much about the essence of the Christianity at all. But what has to be put forward is that in China, there will be loyal Christians as well, but the number of loyal Chinese Christians will be smaller than that in the western countries and they take part in the Christianity for a reason or another. The aforementioned reason for human beings to take part in Christianity is mainly related with the physical aspects of their life. 

b. Uniqueness of the Chinese Muslim

With the uniqueness of Christianity in China being stated minutely in the above, what follows next into my mind is the uniqueness of the Chinese Muslim. Chinese Muslims are dangerous for the construction of the whole country as they have been testified to be an opposing aspect of China whenever it is with difficulty. It seems that these Chinese Muslims are all the time expecting that the whole country can have some kind of turmoil so that the whole country’s power can be to a certain degree weakened. In this way, they can take up arms to act and they may in the due time win due to China’s being weakened and being bullied by the enemies at the same time. They are always waiting for a suitable time to rebel and they hope that they can succeed for the first trial in order that that may not be further teased by others in China as they find that the Chinese Muslims will all the time be a potential danger for the whole country if they are always existent. Thus it is possible that the Chinese Muslims may be completely eliminated if they failed for the first time. But the fact is that there will also be some good Chinese Muslims as well who are considering for the development of the whole country with the constant issuing of government policies to advocate the advantages of the Chinese Muslim and the appealing points of them at the same time. 

While on the other hand, the Muslims in western countries tend to be the main contributing factors of the whole country and they feel that it is their responsibility to help contribute to the development of the country they belong to. Only in this way will they think that they have paid back enough for the country they belong to as the specific country they live is always in support of the existence of them and it has in the meantime tried its best to guarantee their rights in a way or another so that they can live a better life under the management of it. And the Muslims in the western countries know that they have to unify with each other so that their strength will be strong enough to protect their own country so that it can be prevented from being bullied by any strength at this level or that for different situations. 

V. Conclusion

To sum up, this paper has tried its best to explore the uniqueness of Christianity in China and the Chinese Muslim but the result finds that there seem not many previous studies on this topic so that I do not have put forward many findings. While there is no doubt that there are other uniqueness of Christianity in China and Chinese Muslim as have not been raised in the above due to the text limit and my being kind of inexperienced, which calls for your delicate attention and your careful consideration. 

Bibliography

Daniel H. Bays. 2012. A New History of Christianity in China. A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. G. Wright Doyle. 2006. China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future. Online available from: http://www.globalchinacenter.org/analysis/christianity-in-china/china-and-christianity-burdened-past-hopeful-future.php. 

The Muslim Observer. 2015. Chinese Muslim Scholars. Online available from: 

http://muslimobserver.com/chinese-muslim-scholars/. 

Wu Annie. 2015. Christianity in China. Online available from: http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/christianity.htm. 

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