In 1807, Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary, arrived in
China. It was the starting point of the attempt, undertaken by mostly
Anglophone Protestant churches, to evangelize the inconceivably vast
Chinese empire, an endeavour that lasted until the 1950s and proved much
more difficult than its leaders had imagined. Confined to Portuguese
Macao and the Thirteen Factories trading neighbourhood in Guangzhou
(“Canton”), the only places where foreigners were allowed to reside,
Morrison was soon joined by a handful of other missionary hopefuls from
Britain and America, as well as by a few Germans and Scandinavians. Most
were men, but some married couples and, from the 1840s onwards,
unmarried women were of the party, too.
Initially forbidden to
proselytize, missionaries moved between private practices of religion
and intense engagement with Chinese language and culture, eventually
being at the forefront of philology. To be ready when called to go
forth, they not only learned the language, but translated tens of
thousands of pages of religious writings, tracts, and, most importantly,
the Bible – the latter including bitter conflicts about the correct
translation of “God” and “Holy Spirit”. They published dictionaries and
journals, and many would come to write original texts in Chinese. With
the forceful opening of the empire during the Anglo-Chinese War (“Opium
War”, 1839-42), they had more options to preach, and missions sprang up
all over China, but they never gave up on their study of the Chinese
language.
Because of their knowledge of local customs and languages,
missionaries are now recognized as important intermediaries,
complementing official diplomacy with on-the-ground political
navigation. Their involvement in either facilitating imperial
interventions or opposing them, as well as their contributions to
religious debate and philological developments, have received ample
attention, ranging from early hero-narratives to post-colonial
criticism.
To draw as near to the life-worlds of the actors as
possible and give students the opportunity to work with personal papers,
the seminar will complement printed primary sources and secondary
literature with archival material from British and American
repositories.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Kerstin Maria Pahl