Materiality in the absence of the church: Practising protestantism during China's Cultural Revolution

This article begins by presenting a paradox, wherein Protestant converts during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) proclaimed to turn to a faith that had been deprived of authorized forms of religious mediation. Inaccessible to religious authorities, Protestantism was differentiated from C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History and anthropology 2020-10, Vol.31 (5), p.563-582
Main Author: Kao, Chen-yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
China
Cults
Cultural change
Cultural Revolution
materiality
Protestantism
Religion
Religious buildings
Scriptures
semiotic ideology
Semiotics
the Cultural Revolution
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Summary:This article begins by presenting a paradox, wherein Protestant converts during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) proclaimed to turn to a faith that had been deprived of authorized forms of religious mediation. Inaccessible to religious authorities, Protestantism was differentiated from Chinese popular religion by its repudiation of material images, but nonetheless, Protestants developed ways to practise their faith that included the improvizational handling of materials. Dematerialization and rematerialization worked together to forge a semiotically defined Protestant identity in which oral communication with the divine took precedence over tangible religious objects. This semiotic feature accorded Jesus with enduring power and divinity that could not be deprived by the devastation of religious buildings, icons, and scriptures, giving Protestantism an edge over local cults. Employing Webb Keane's concept of semiotic ideology, I demonstrate how Protestantism maintained its distinctness and began to grow in the absence of the church.
ISSN:0275-7206
1477-2612
DOI:10.1080/02757206.2020.1805738