The Church in Tianjin

by Tony Lambert

Tianjin means “Ford to Heaven” in Chinese. It is China’s third largest city (after Shanghai and Beijing) with a total population of about ten million people. Although situated in Hebei province, it is a separate municipality with its own government. Tianjin is a busy commercial center, but not on the tourist circuit so is much less known than neighboring Beijing.

In 1949 there were over 40 churches in the city reflecting its importance as a center for missionary activity from the mid-19th century. By 1958 only four were left open and these were closed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). State-sanctioned churches began to re-open in 1979-1980. Today there are three main Protestant churches open in the city itself and five other smaller churches or meeting points in the suburbs, including one at Tanggu on the coast.

The number of Protestants is very small compared to the size of the city. In the early fifties the total number was about 7,000, according to a government handbook published in 1990. By 1986 they had grown to 8,000. Today there are at least 15,000. (Amity News Service [ANS] Sept 1997) This is less than a quarter of one percent of the population. Even allowing for unregistered house churches, it seems certain that Tianjin is one of the least evangelized cities in the entire country. In fact, the Lausanne Committee some years ago listed Tianjin as China’s least evangelized city!

Tianjin used to be the home of a famous house-church leader. He has written numerous Christian poems. One of these, “The Anonymous Evangelist,” is well-known world-wide among the Chinese Christian community.

Roman Catholics are more numerous than Protestants in Tianjin. Two famous Catholic schools were opened in the city by Catholic missions in 1891 and 1914. In 1922 the Jesuits founded the Industrial and Commercial School. In 1902 and 1916 Catholics launched two newspapers in Chinese to promote church teaching. In the early 19th century local Chinese Catholics opposed the French consul’s attempts to use the church to expand French political interests.

Today there are at least 100,000 Catholics in Tianjin (see Guide to the Catholic Church in China, 1997 edition, Hong Kong). About half are young people. There are four churches open in the city itself. The main cathedral is a city landmark with its three high towers; it was built in 1914 and is the largest church in Tianjin.

St. Joseph’s church, also known as the “French church” was re-opened in 1980. It can accommodate 2,000 people and usually has over 1,000 people attending even weekday services.

The oldest Catholic church was originally built in 1773. It was burned down in an anti-Christian riot in 1869 (see our next article) but rebuilt in 1897. It was destroyed yet again in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion and rebuilt in 1904. During the Cultural Revolution it was seriously damaged a third time by the Red Guards. In 1976, during the great earthquake which killed some 200,000 people in nearby Tangshan, the tower cracked and a hall collapsed. In 1984 it was handed back to the church, renovated, and re-opened for worship in December that year, and is now classed as a “cultural relic.”

In suburban and countryside districts of the Tianjin municipality there are, in addition, eight other Catholic churches. All these churches belong to the officially-controlled Patriotic Catholic Association which does not recognize the authority of the Pope.

Religious affairs are tightly controlled in Tianjin, possibly because of its strategic proximity close to the capital. House churches exist but are small and scattered. Christians are a tiny minority. In fact, Protestants and Catholics together do not equal the total number of Hui Muslims in Tianjin who number nearly 200,000! The attitude of many people is secular and atheistic and it may be that anti-Christian attitudes have lingered longer here because of Tianjin’s sad experiences at the hands of foreigners and of Western “Christians” (see our following article). If so, there is a great need for dedicated Christians to work in the city as teachers and other professionals to demonstrate the love of Christ. They need to show that far from being a threat, genuine Christianity is an asset to any society. Let us pray that Tianjin in future years will live up to its name of being “the Ford to Heaven.”

TIANJIN’S TURBULENT HISTORY

Tianjin was known as Tientsin in the 19th century. It was first opened to foreign trade after the Second Opium War of 1858-1860. In May 1858 British and French fleets sailed north to Tianjin accompanied by American and Russian envoys. In the same year the Chinese government was forced to sign four treaties with Russia, the United States, Great Britain and France. These were collectively known as the Treaties of Tientsin. Key provisions were the opening of Tientsin as a treaty port, the right of Christian missions to own property, the right of foreign envoys to reside in Beijing and the opening of the Yangtze river to foreign trade.

From 1860 the British and the French had their own “concessions” in Tientsin and several foreign buildings of that period, such as banks and churches, are still standing in the city. In 1895, after the disastrous Sino-Japanese War—the one during which the Empress Dowager is reported to have spent money reserved for the Chinese navy on the famous stone boat still visible in Beijing’s Summer Palace, the Japanese were also granted a concession in Tianjin. In 1900, after the Boxer rebellion, concessions were further given to Austro-Hungary, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Russia. The city was effectively under the control of foreigners, and this was greatly resented by patriotic Chinese. French Catholics were prominent in the city and unfortunately the French government sometimes used them for its own political purposes.

On 21 June 1870 long-simmering resentment of missionary activity exploded. Anti-Christian feeling was more acute in Tianjin than elsewhere because the French constructed a huge Catholic cathedral on the site of a former temple. The nuns set up orphanages and were unwise in giving small sums of money for each child brought to them. This led to accusations of kidnapping. When the local Chinese magistrate demanded an inspection of the premises, the French consul opened fire killing one of his attendants. The consul was killed and a mob set the consulate, the cathedral and the orphanage on fire, massacring ten French nuns, two French priests and several Chinese converts and other foreigners. An official Chinese investigation led to the execution of 16 Chinese. To prevent repetition, the Chinese government tried to persuade the Western powers to agree to a set of regulations to control missionary activity but this was unsuccessful.

In the 1930s Tianjin fell increasingly under Japanese influence. It was to here that the last Qing Emperor Puyi fled after he was evicted from the Forbidden City. After living the life of a playboy in the Japanese concession from 1925 to 1931, he left Tianjin and was crowned Emperor of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo in 1932. In 1933 the Japanese forced the Nationalist government to make the area around Tianjin and Beijing a demilitarized zone. In 1937 they attacked China and occupied both cities, and a large part of the country which they occupied until 1945. The sufferings of the Chinese people were immense, and many students and professional people escaped from Tianjin and other coastal cities to relocate universities and businesses in “Free China” in the far west.

A TIANJIN HOUSE-CHURCH LEADER WRITES…

“Over the last half-century great changes have taken place. Some Christians including myself have failed and were restored again. I thank our heavenly Father. All may change, but Jesus never! He neither changes nor fails us. He loved and saved such a sinner like me in the past. Now he still loves and keeps me in his arms. He will love me for ever! Whenever I think of His eternal love, my eyes are filled with tears.”

A TIANJIN STUDENT’S LETTER

“I am a Tianjin student. My name is Wang. I love to listen to radio. I listen to the BBC every morning and sometimes to French broadcasts. I came across Christian radio accidentally. My mother won’t let me listen as she wants me to spend more time studying. So I listen in secret! I do not understand about the Bible and so I do not believe in Jesus Christ. The text-books I study tell me religion is superstition. Is believing in God a superstition? I have never believed in God. I do not pray. Will you please pray for me that God will bless my studies and give me happiness.”

Copyright OMF International