Harbin — City of the North

by Tony Lambert

Scattered around Harbin there are several Russian Orthodox churches in various states of repair. Only one is still being used for the tiny Orthodox community—the only Russian Orthodox officially recognized by the government in the whole of China. Today the resident Russian community has shrunk to a mere handful. Yet in the 1920s and 1930s Harbin was home to over 100,000 Russians. After the Japanese occupation and the victory of the communists, they mainly emigrated overseas leaving just a few hundred by the mid-1950s. As the church had made very few Chinese converts, today it is almost extinct. The experience of the Russian Orthodox church in Harbin is a solemn warning to all Christians that a church which does not evangelize will fossilize, then disappear.

What a contrast a few yards down the street! The thriving Protestant church is overflowing with worshippers with over a thousand people at each of its four Sunday services (the first is at 5:30 a.m.!) Then there are also three services in Korean for the large Korean Christian community. There are also two other large Protestant churches in the Daoli and Daowai districts and a huge new church is being built in the suburbs. There are now reported to be 180,000 Protestant Christians in the Greater Harbin area, compared to only 3,000 twenty years ago. They are served by five pastors and twenty evangelists and many lay workers. Many others are receiving training in house churches. Yet all this together is unable to provide the number of Christian leaders needed. It is not surprising that certain heresies such as “Lightning from the East” have made inroads, especially in country areas.

GOD’S GRACE IN HEILONGJIANG

Heilongjiang Province has seen rapid growth from 26,000 registered Protestants in 1985 to about 600,000 according to statistics given out in 1994 by local Three Self pastors. According to Hong Kong observers if unregistered house-church Christians are also added then the real figure of Christians in Heilongjiang may be over one million—a staggering increase! (CCL report of March 2001). As the number of Protestants in 1948 on the eve of the communist victory was only 15,242, then this means the church in Heilongjiang has grown about forty times since the Communist Party took power.

It is also remarkable that the government recognizes that there are far more Christians in Heilongjiang than there are Buddhists! In 1999 the Religious Affairs Bureau estimated 500,000 registered Protestants, but only 180,000 Buddhists. The latter figure may be based on those who attend shrines and temples regularly, and may not include many more who are influenced to varying degrees by “folk religion.” Nevertheless, the figures are startling evidence of how far the gospel is on the cutting edge of the religious awakening in China today.

In 1994 about 300 churches were reported officially open in Heilongjiang, and “thousands” of meeting-points, both registered and unregistered. This year the total number of registered churches and meeting points was reported to be 1,100. However, there are only 27 pastors in the entire province recognized by the government! This would give a ratio of one pastor for 25,000 believers! In 1995 six of the pastors were over sixty years old, and four were over 80! Qitaihe is a large city to the southeast of Harbin. Last year a believer there reported there are nearly 100,000 Christians in this city but only three recognized elders. This acute crisis in trained leadership is alleviated, to some extent, by those being trained at the Heilongjiang Bible School. The school runs three-year courses and in March this year had 94 students. There is also a two-year course for Harbin church workers, which has about 120 students. (Reports from CCL, HK March 2001) Because Northeast China is not so much on the tourist circuit, fewer overseas visitors bring in Christian literature of which there is still a great shortage.

The continuing strategic role of gospel radio should also not be overlooked. Heilongjiang is a huge province covering 469,000 square kilometers. It is thus China’s fifth largest administrative area. Many rural Christians live in remote villages. During winter they are cut off from the world by deep snow and freezing temperatures which fall to -40 degrees Celsius. (Harbin’s main claim to fame on the tourist itinerary is the Ice Festival when magnificent sculptures are carved from ice.) Many Christians are isolated and have little or no fellowship. So it is not surprising that Heilongjiang has one of the highest response rates to gospel radio which provides a lifeline for many believers. They grow in their Christian faith by listening to devotional programs as well as train for Christian service by receiving basic Bible and theological training over the air.

THE TURBULENT NORTHEAST

Northeast China, or Manchuria as it was once known, has had a stormy history. For centuries it was the heartland of the Manchu people who in the mid-seventeenth century stormed unopposed across the Great Wall to take Beijing, destroy the decadent Ming dynasty and establish the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty which ruled for nearly three centuries (1644-1911.)

By the mid-19th century the Manchus had lost their martial valor and were unable to successfully resist the ruthless occupation of large parts of China by the Western powers, Russia and Japan. In 1860 Russia through the Treaty of Peking took control of a huge area around Vladivostok which had previously been part of the Qing Empire. Manchuria was now opened up to poor Chinese settlers who poured into the previously undeveloped area. However, czarist Russia had by then carved out a sphere of influence, building railways and controlling commerce. Russia’s political influence received a shattering blow when the Japanese unexpectedly won the Russo-Japanese war in 1904 sinking much of the Russian fleet. From then on the Japanese steadily increased their influence in southern Manchuria and took control of many of the railways.

After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Manchuria was ruled by a virtually independent warlord, Chang Tso-lin, who negotiated with the new Soviet government.

In 1928 Chang was assassinated by the Japanese who resented his independence. His son, Chang Hsueh-liang, then took power. He proclaimed himself loyal to the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek based in Nanjing. In September 1931 the Japanese seized control of Mukden (now Shenyang) and other cities. China appealed to the League of Nations which was powerless to intervene—these were the years of appeasement when fascism was on the rise in Germany, Italy and Japan.

Japan’s seizure of Manchuria in 1932 led to its aggression against north China in 1937 which really marked the start of the Second World War.

The ruthless occupation of Manchuria by the Japanese reached its climax in 1932 when they established the puppet-state of Manchukuo, installing Pu Yi the “Last Emperor” of the Qing dynasty as their tool. His life-story has been immortalized in the famous film of the same name. Although totally subservient to the Japanese military, Pu Yi “reigned” from “Hsinching” (the New Capital), now Changchun in Jilin province. Impoverished Japanese peasants were encouraged to colonize vast areas of countryside. Drugs were openly sold and the Chinese population treated with contempt. Germ-warfare experiments were also carried out against a helpless population. Purely for their own benefit, the Japanese turned Manchukuo into a major industrial base with mines and an extensive railway system.

On August 8, 1945, the day after the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Stalin opportunistically declared war on Japan and Soviet forces occupied the whole of northeast China by the end of August. They stayed in the area for nearly nine months outstaying their welcome and stripping the factories of equipment worth $2 billion, and denying heating fuel to the local population. Although Mao’s China and the USSR remained allies until 1960, such high-handedness created much resentment in China. Although the Nationalists were able to retake many of the major cities for a short period, the Chinese communists controlled the countryside. By 1948 the whole of the Northeast had fallen to their armies.

After 1949 the new Communist government strove to rebuild the Northeast as a major industrial center. The oil wells at Daqing were held up as an example to the entire nation. Today, however, what was once an industrial asset has become a disaster. Huge State-run factories run at a loss and have been forced to dismiss thousands of workers. The old “iron rice-bowl” system has broken down and the Northeast has been particularly hard-hit with many workers forced into unemployment. The growth of an affluent middle-class and the prosperity of city centers in Harbin, Shenyang, Dalien, etc. cannot hide the serious social dislocation in many parts of the Northeast. It is a major social problem which the Christian church must face if it is to evangelize the people effectively.

Copyright OMF International