A Study On Christian Music Of HWa Miao In Northwest Guizhou Of China

With many research findings coming out, the quick spread and penetration of Christianity among Miao Nationality in Southeast China, as well as its related study, has long been a famous school of Western humanities. The collective conversion of Hwa Miao group to Christianity in the early 20 th century not only marked the glory of Shimenkan Church, which was taken for“the area of highest culture of Southeast Miao Nationality” and a “oversea heaven” by foreign media, but also made Shimenkan and Hwa Miao world famous. Chinese study on this motif has made great progress since 1985, when former President Hu Jintao who was then the provincial party secretary mentioned the British missionary, Samuel Pollard(1864-1915), and Shimenkan on his first meeting in Guizhou. Some scholars have already put forward a lot of valuable academic questions.Gebu church, the object of this dissertation, was the first church set by Mainland China Christian Council(MCCC) within Hwa Miao Settlement area in Wumeng Mountain on the cross boundary of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. Shimenkan church of Methodist church was established with the support of Gebu Church. The missionaries of the two churches, together with the co-workers of Miao, created Miao letters and Miao Scores, and then published the Miao version of Holy Bilble as well as anthem scores. After 1906, Shimenkan Church developed very quickly and became “ the area of highest culture of Southeast Miao Nationality “ due to the different ideas between MCCC and Methodist church. From then on, Gebu church faded away from people’s focus.Taking Gebu Church as a case, this dissertation contains seven chapters, including the introduction of Hwa Miao group in Northeast Guizhou, the penetration of Christianity in Northeast Guizhou, the development and status quo of church music, anthem in the field, the study on Pollard Letter Score, the spirituals of Miao, the conflict and convergence of culture, aiming at further exploring the localization, inheritance and changes of Christian Music among Hwa Miao group. It is expected to do the research on General Culture beyond the limits of musicology, meanwhile to discuss the gain and losses of the modernity of ethnic music.Chapter One uses the method of literature study, field survey and interdisciplinary historical data study to discuss the relationship between Christianity and Miao Nationality with 3 sections: the history of Hwa Miao group, the development of ethnic culture and Christianity in Miao society in northeast Guizhou.Chapter Two made a historical review on the development of Christianity in Northeast Guizhou. It also gives a detailed introduction and objective research on missionary ideas and methods of MCCC and Methodist Church.Chapter Three deals with the history of Hwa Miao’s church music, which is the miniature of the penetration of Christianity among Hwa Miao, even the whole ethnic settlement area. The author takes two important timing points, post-1949 and post-opening-up, to elaborate the history and process. Meanwhile, she also focuses on living ethnic music resulting from the change of educational function of the church music, and makes a case study on Gebu Church and Dasong Church for the influence of church music on social life.Chapter Four is a report of field survey about the night prayer ceremony of Dasong church, the Lord’s Day ceremony of Gebu church, the completion of a new church ceremony of Gebu Church, Baptism and Communion of Gebu church, as well as the music utilized on these ceremonies.Chapter Five is the study on the Pollard letter score, based on the author’s interview and field survey, aiming at presenting the outline of the development of anthem written in the Miao Character. Furthermore, the author compares the Pollard letter score with the music itself, trying to illustrate and analyses the missionary ideas and methods used here from a new perspective.Chapter Six interprets the Miao Anthem, the spiritual results of the localization of Christian anthem, which are scarcely the research objects. The author fills the gap by studying the religious connotation, expression mode, development process, character and the meaning of the music.Chapter Seven is the conclusion. It suggests an answer to the question put out in the first chapter by comparing the social and ethnic backgrounds, the class attribute and the ideas and methods of Missionaries with those of traditional Chinese religions. And then the author concludes that the localization of Christianity amony Miao Nationality in Northeast Guizhou was achieved by the localization of Christian music, based on her study about the conflict, the convergence and the multi-dimentional influence of Christian culture.