ID | 151406 |
Title Proper | Spatial modernity, party building, and local governance |
Other Title Information | putting the Christian cross removal campaign in context |
Language | ENG |
Author | Cao, Nanlai |
Summary / Abstract (Note) | While Christianity is among the fastest growing religions in the reform era, state-led sporadic demolition campaigns have targeted unauthorized church structures and sites in order to contain massive Christian growth, especially in regions where there is a high concentration of Christian population. Such campaigns oft en stir heated international concerns about China’s religious freedom violations, naturally making church-state relations the recurring central theme of both public and academic discourses on the church in China. However, a heightened emphasis on church-state tensions and religious persecution may obscure the cultural and spatial dimensions of local church development. Focusing on the case of the recent campaign against rooft op crosses in Wenzhou—the most Christianized Chinese city, I go beyond the one-dimensional framework of church-state relations by off ering a multifaceted analysis of the local religious scene in the political economic contexts of contested spatial modernity and of central-local relations amid the party-building process. In so doing, I methodologically place Chinese Christian studies at the center of contemporary China studies. |
`In' analytical Note | China Review Vol. 17, No.1; Feb 2017: p.29–52 |
Journal Source | China Review 2017-04 17, 1 |
Key Words | Party Building ; Spatial Modernity ; Local Governance ; Christian Cross - Removal Campaign ; Church in China |