Highland Christianity

Lian Xi is David C. Steinmetz Distinguished Professor of World Christianity at Duke University. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao's China, and Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China. David Bradley is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at La Trobe University. He is the author of A Grammar of Lisu and coauthor of Language Endangerment. Ralph A. Litzinger is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and is affiliated with the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute and Global Health Institute at Duke University. He is the author of Other Chinas: The Yao and the Politics of National Belonging and coeditor of Ghost Protocol: Development and Displacement in Global China.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Lian Xi Part 1: The Beginnings of Highland Christianity chapter 1 Christianity, Modernity, and the Karen in Burma Pum Za Mang chapter 2 Baptist Christianity in the Making of Modern Kachin Identity in Burma Lagai Zau Nan chapter 3 Beyond Belief: Conversion to Christianity Among the Highlanders in Kon Tum, Vietnam, 1850-1945 Anh-Minh Nguyen-Dang chapter 4 The Family of William Young Among the Lahu: Baptist Mission on the Border Between China and Burma Jianxiong Ma chapter 5 The Making of a Modern Ahmao Intellectual: Han Jie and A Brief History of the Flowery Miao Zh u Jili Part 2: Ethnic Christianity on the Margins of Nation-States chapter 6 Eschatological Beliefs in the Christianity of the Miao in Southwestern China, 1950-1960 Chijui Hu chapter 7 The Baptist Church's Civilizing Project and the Lahu's Appropriation of Christianity: A Case Study of the Christian and the Traditionalist Lahu of Northern Thailand Yoichi Nishimoto chapter 8 Performing Expressive Culture, Performing Governance, and Performing Togetherness: The Church as a Stage for the Display of Lisu Identity Aminta Arrington Part 3: Borderland Christianity in Comparative Perspective 201 chapter 9 Christianity and Writing on the China-Southeast Asia Border David Bradley chapter 10 Productions of Knowledge About Highland Christianity on China's Southeast Asia Frontier: A Historical Review Lian Xi Selected Bibliography List of Contributors Index

"Highland Christianity offers an extraordinarily rich and quite fascinating range of case studies of Christianity in multiple societies that stand on the margins of the better-known societies of Southeast Asia. There is so much of value here for scholars of Christian conversion in the modern world, and of Christian adaptation to diverse cultural settings, not to mention for borderland studies in general. The essays are of uniformly high quality." -Philip Jenkins, author of Kingdoms of This World: How Empires Have Made and Remade Religions "The editors have assembled a first-rate international team of scholars in a book of obvious importance for the recent history of Christianity, but also for illuminating ethnology, Asian tribal languages, and modernization theory. For the Hmong, Lisu, Karen, Miao, Ahmao, and Lahu peoples who live where China, Burman/Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand come together, the surprisingly strong presence of Christian adherence turns out to have resulted not from "the colonization of consciousness" but from conversions experienced for the hill peoples' own purposes. It is a fine book with importance far beyond its revelations about this one corner of the world." -Mark Noll, author of The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith "Through the lenses of indigenization, modernity and ethnicity, this important volume reshapes our understanding of the Christianities of South, Southeast, and East Asia in its pioneering integrated approach to the border-crossing peoples and languages of the uplands. Fascinating case histories draw out missionary and colonial legacies while fore grounding the oppositional identities and local agency shaping Highland Christianity." -Chloe Starr, author of Chinese Theology: Text and Context "The mountainous borderlands of Southwest China and Southeast Asia have become fertile soil for the indigenization of Christianity, especially evangelical Protestantism. Until now scholars have largely neglected these popular movements of conversion among ethnic minorities who straddle national boundaries. Highland Christianity rectifies this omission, highlighting the compulsive attraction of missionary orthographies and the modernizing literacy that followed. This book will become the authoritative treatment of the subject." -Brian Stanley, Professor Emeritus of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh "Displaying a sophisticated approach to analyzing the complex factors surrounding the embrace of Christianity among the hill peoples of the Southeast Asian borderlands is still largely unknown to scholars of world Christianity. With an admirable attention to the agency and lived experiences of many ethnic groups, this expertly edited collaborative volume is a must read for anyone interested in the processes of Christian conversion, modernization, and ethnic regeneration in landscapes still largely unknown to scholars of world Christianity." -David Hempton, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor "A compelling analysis of Christianity in highland Asia. It examines how their Christianity enables the Indigenous peoples of this region to creatively construct their identity and ethnicity on their own terms amid the bewildering forces of colonialism and nation-making processes. Instead of analyzing the origins of Christianity as simply a colonial encounter, the contributors demonstrate how it provides social cohesion and intellectual, cultural, and political capital." -Arkotong Longkumer, author of Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging: The Heraka Movement in Northeast India