After years of cynical Western criticism of evangelical mission to China, it is heartening to have a careful study by a Chinese scholar willing to weigh both Chinese Communist Party sources, local reports and missionary records. T’ien Ju-K’ang is a Professor of History and Head of the Sociology Department at Fudian University, Shanghai. He has presented us with a fascinating and, from a Christian perspective, encouraging study of the impact and ongoing effect of mission among the minority peoples of Yunnan province between 1906 and 1993. Half of China’s minority groups live in Yunnan. He writes with sympathy for the Christian position and at times with outspoken criticism of the excesses of government policy during the rule of Mao Tse Tung.

He begins by analysing the historical and geographical factors that inclined the minorities to be more responsive to the gospel than the Han (normal Chinese) majority. Historically the minorities had been pushed up the inhospitable mountains by the more aggressive and exploitative Han, were widely dispersed (even into the surrounding countries of Thailand and Indo-China), and lacked any coherent political organization. Confucianism had made little inroads into their culture because it was too remote a philosophy and too elaborate a moral code. In contrast, Protestantism spurred the believers to advance socio-economic change. T’ien is convinced that the ‘wretched minorities’ needed change. Wasteful agricultural techniques, poor diet, sickness, drunkenness, opium addiction, violence, and fear of demons involving expensive appeasement were all widespread problems and are well documented from the archives of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences. He writes of a need for a ‘driving force … to awaken their lethargic minds’—and sees that force arriving with a variety of Protestant mission groups.

Between 1905 and 1949, 131, 191 Protestant believers were registered among this 0.6 per cent of the population of China at a time when the whole country contained no more than 1,000,000 believers. His description of the ‘self-denying missionaries’ is extraordinary. He writes with deep respect of their lifestyle among the peoples, experiencing deprivation and disease as they identified with them. While more of his sources here are missionary reports and biographies (including J.O. Fraser and Isabel Khun), they are confirmed by local reports, including government ones. He suggest that many did not understand all the concepts of the gospel, but were won over by the love and service of the foreigners, and that huge economic and social benefits stemmed from villages renouncing heathenism and trusting Jesus to protect them from demons. Consistently, Chinese government reports had commented on the cleanliness, literacy and moral integrity of Christian villages, in contrast both to their former state and to other, non-Christian, communities. The gospel brought with it self-respect, social cohesion and economic responsibility.

Tien’s analysis is a challenge to those who would regard evangelism as secondary to social work and reconstruction. He sees holistic evangelistic ministry as fundamental to the wholesome changes he observed. Whilst Chinese intellectuals were impressed by the changes for good, officials who used to exploit the minorities and use them to grow opium gave a lot of trouble. Missionaries were therefore drawn into the fight for minority rights.

The second half of the book examines the ‘trying years’ of Maoist rule, analysing the rationale of the Chinese persecution of the Christians among the minorities and their reactions to it. He speaks bluntly of the ‘cumulative absurdities’ of local governments’ application of Beijing directives and of the problems of having ‘a supreme leader [who] had the habit of being seized by a certain wild whim at any moment’ (p. 83). He traces through periods of ruthless persecution despite an official policy of religious freedom, recording the frustration of cadres that had expected a speedy eradication of Christian faith. Denunciation sessions crumbled because Christians had learnt to forgive (and anyway, their society had no landlord class), and the believers wanted to evangelize the cadres. 1950–52 yielded a 60 per cent increase in baptisms! Various methods were tried to wean people away from the gospel—relief programmes, entertainment, job postings away from Christians, imprisonment, fines, and even public executions. They met with little success. T’ien believes that the principles of indigenous leadership adopted by the China Inland Mission helped establish such a resilient work.

During the Cultural Revolution ‘China was plunged into an unprecedented catastrophe in which people acted as though their minds were under a spell of madness in which human weakness predominated over all traditional moral virtue’ (p. 111). Many fled to surrounding nations for safety, but most of the Christians stood firm under increased persecution. T’ien illuminates the contribution to this resistance of Wang Ming Dao’s Little Flock with its ‘narrow gate’ theology.

Following the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976, the minorities’ churches of Yunnan saw significant revival, some reckoning that the persecutions had ‘rendered a big help to God’ (p. 119) as people flocked to open-air meetings. More disillusioned Han were converted, including Communist government officials and former cadres. New churches were built and Christians co-operated with the government in welfare projects as, from 1979, it tried to make amends for the past. However, he records that since 1986 there has been more government control of house churches.

Finally, T’ien assesses the present problems of the minorities’ churches. He lists these as: uncertain government policy on religion, a shortage of reliable preachers, insufficient inexpensive Bibles and Christian literature, denominational strife imported by returning exiles, syncretism (as demon rituals return to untaught churches), and the ‘sinister designs’ of some joining the churches. He does not expect an easy future for the minority churches of Yunnan, but concludes that they ‘suffered in the past, and are ready to withstand persecution in the future’ (p. 132).

I have re-read this book several times with delight. As a record of the grace of God to down-trodden people it is immensely encouraging; as a contribution to missiological studies on China it deserves attention as a Chinese perspective on Western missions and on Chinese political strategy towards Christianity.