Localization. On The 1920s And 1930s Christian Movement

In the 1920s and 1930s, Protestantism had developed with an unsuccessful storyover one hundred years since it was introduced into China by Robert Morrison in1807. It suffered the indifferent attitudes from Chinese at the beginning, and then theanti-Christian Cases, New Culture Movement, the anti-Christian Movement and theRevolution (1922-1927) followed. All of these made the foreign missionaries andChinese Christians reflect how to deal with. Some of them realized that theestablishment of Chinese church was the only true choice, and started to examine thechurch's internal problem and consider its direction of development. Gradually, theyrealized if the Christianity wanted to root and germinate in China, it must remove its"foreign" flavor, unite with Chinese traditional culture, and establish Chinese church,i.e. make Christian indigenization come true.However, the Chinese Christian indigenization did not succeed for want ofenough funds and the talent persons, as well as the suspicion and obstruction of theforeign missionaries. But Chinese Christians' efforts provided a valuable experience.This paper firstly introduces the recent studies of Hong Kong, Taiwan andMainland scholars on this topic, and describes the social context of the IndigenizationMovement. Then it narrates the attacks on Christianity in the early-Twenty Centuryand the changes of foreign missionaries' policy. Lastly, it elaborates the ChineseChristians' efforts on establishing Chinese Churches.