A Communication Study On The Dissemination Of Christianity In China

Content: The history of communication from the four waves of Christianity entering into China is the object of this article. To comprehend the communication conditions from the beginning of Tang dynasty till the end of Qing dynasty and choose some models and communication theories within these past thousand years in order to make a further study are the purpose of this essay. In contrast with the communication theories, this study found out that when the Christianity came into China, different communication environment and media, audience and communicator's abilities had significant impact in the effectiveness of the communication's result.The study content is divided into three parts. The first part explores the activities of Christianity in the dynasties of Tang and Yuan. Through analyzing the way of communication and the core feature in Nestorianism and Erkeun, the author concludes that two main lessons, which are the communication coding mistake and unsuitable channels, should be learnt.The second part approaches the communication of Catholic Church in the end of Ming and at the beginning of Qing. By combining the western culture development during sixteen and seventeen centuries, we have not only introduced Matteo Ricci's tactics who played a single communicator role, but also summarized the Catholic's activities and peculiarities of who played the role as the community of communicator. Then through an overall evaluation, review that Catholic Church's way of communication is able to prove the guidance purpose of the communication theory, and notice the success and failure of communication strategy which Catholic Church used in China.The third part addresses the Protestantism in the end of Qing dynasty. Because of the fast industrialization and culture in the western countries and the long closed China to foreigners, the Protestantism faced resistance and opportunities. Reviewing different period of time, the author presents that the earlier communication worked and then describes two divergent routes which bring us some enlightenment. Further, the article analyzes some relative social state that occurred in the communication conflicts, and what teachings we can extract from those conflicts. Finally, the author makes a brief conclusion on how the Protestantism entered into China.In the conclusion, the study unifies the communication models and the history practices, and offers a communication model which can explain the Christianity's activities in China. The author also points out three problems for communicating Christianity in China: adaptability, indigenization and contextualization, which should be paid attention to. The author also sums up the new ideas and flaws in this essay.