Abstract
Building churches in China—from the treaty ports to remote villages of the interior—was a concrete act making Christianity physically present in the public space. Choosing a particular architectural style, therefore, was a crucial issue to the missionaries, who interacted daily with Chinese people and local interests. Church builders could not only select precise references in a wide range of Western styles (Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, Classic, Eclectic, and more), but also hybridize Chinese and Western forms, building types, construction techniques, and ornamentation. After the massive destruction of churches during the Boxer Uprising in 1900, discussed in Part 1, most new churches adopted a triumphant Gothic style that, at that time, was considered the best expression of “Christian Civilization.”
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For example, the reference works Peter G. Rowe and Seng Kuan, Architectural Encounters with Essence and Form in Modern China (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002);
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Gresnigt, “Reflections on Chinese Architecture,” p. 26, referring to Jacques Maritain, Religion and Culture (London: Sheed & Ward, 1931).
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He was the director of St. Louis industrial school at Hong Kong, Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll). Jean-Paul Wiest, Maryknoll in China (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), pp. 281–296, mentions the cathedral of Kongmoon/Jiangmen (Guangdong Province), 1929, and the church of Loting (Guangdong Province), 1928.
Lorry Swerts and Koen De Ridder, Mon Van Genechten (1903–1974): Flemish Missionary and Chinese Painter: Inculturation of Christian Art in China (Leuven, Belgium: University Press Leuven, 2002).
Jozef Raskin, “Notes d’art Chinois,” L’Artisan liturgique vol. 40 (1936), pp. 825–830;
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Leo Van Dijk, Wenda xiangjie (Tianjin, 1927; Shanghai: Pu Ai Tang, 1928), cited in
Jean-Paul Wiest, “Reaching Out through Printed Works and Pictures: Maryknoll Catechetic Materials, 1918–1950,” in History of Catechesis in China (Leuven Chinese Studies 18), ed. Staf Vloeberghs (Leuven, Belgium: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, KU Leuven, 2008), pp. 223–232.
On Lucas Chen and Fujen University’s art department, see: Jeremy Clarke, The Virgin Mary and Catholic Identities in Chinese History (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013), pp. 143–194.
“Objections.” Collectanea Commissionis synodalis/Digest of the Synodal Commission vol. 5 (1932), pp. 475–485; Aminta Arrington, “Recasting the Image: Celso Costantini and the Role of Sacred Art and Architecture in the Indigenization of the Chinese Catholic Church, 1922–1933,” Missiology: An International Review vol. 41, no. 4 (2013), pp. 438–451.
Le missionnaire constructeur, conseils-plans, par des missionnaires de la Chine du Nord (Xianxian: Imprimerie de Sien-Hsien, 1936), quote, p. 1. See Thomas Coomans, “A Pragmatic Approach to Church Construction in Northern China at the Time of Christian Inculturation: The Handbook ‘Le missionnaire constructeur,’ 1926,” Frontiers of Architectural Research vol. 3 (2014), pp. 89–107.
Carlo Sforza, L’Énigme chinoise (Paris: Payot, 1928), quoted in “Objections,” pp. 483–484.
Johannes Pripp-Møller, “Architecture: A Servant of Foreign Missions,” International Review of Mission vol. 28 (1939), pp. 105–115;
Tobias Faber, Johannes Pripp-Møller: A Danish Architect in China (Hong Kong: Christian Mission to Buddhists, 1994).
Albert Ghesquières and Paul Muller, “Comment bâtirons-nous dispensaires, écoles, missions catholiques, chapelles, séminaires, communautés religieuses en Chine?” Collectanea Commissionis synodalis/Digest of the Synodal Commission vol. 14 (1941), pp. 1–81; Thomas Coomans, “Construire des églises, des séminaires et des écoles catholiques dans la Chine en pleine tourmente (1941): une utopie missionnaire?” in Le Christianisme chinois aux 19 e et 20 e siècles figures, événements et missions, ed. Chen Tsung-ming (Leuven Chinese Studies) (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, forthcoming).
Bruno Fabio Pighin, Chiesa e stato in Cina: Dalle imprese di Costantini alle svolte attuali (Venice: Facoltà di dritto canonico San Pio X, 2010).
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Coomans, T. (2014). Indigenizing Catholic Architecture in China: From Western-Gothic to Sino-Christian Design, 1900–1940. In: Chu, C.Yy. (eds) Catholicism in China, 1900-Present. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137353658_8
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