Editor’s note: For over a decade, ChinaSource Quarterly has been a trusted resource for insights into Christianity and religious policy in China. As we put the finishing touches on the Spring 2025 issue, we’re excited to share that we are returning to our original name—ChinaSource Journal!
This issue explores the Sinicization of Christianity, unpacking its historical roots, ideological implications, and contemporary debates. With contributions from leading scholars and experts, the journal examines how this evolving policy—driven by both state directives and grassroots religious dynamics—continues to shape the relationship between faith and politics in China.
Be sure to subscribe to receive the upcoming ChinaSource Journal straight to your inbox upon publication. This issue offers crucial perspectives on how China’s religious policies are influencing Christianity today and in the future.
Today, we’re excited to share ChinaSource Perspective by Brent Fulton as a preview of our upcoming issue. Enjoy the read, and stay tuned for the full release!
It is an honor to have Naomi Thurston and Jordan Wang as guest editors for this issue of ChinaSource Journal, along with contributions from He Guanghu, Chin Ken Pa, Ying Fuk-tsang, Richard Madsen, and Eva Hanke. Together they offer a nuanced view of a concept that has received considerable coverage in recent years yet remains difficult to define.
As the theme of this issue suggests, and as our contributors explore from various perspectives, defining the term in question goes to the heart of understanding China’s current policy and its effect upon religious believers.
Sinicization, Chinafication, or Zhongguohua?
The question calls to mind the Confucian concept of Rectification of Names, with its reminder to use precise language in defining one’s terms.
On its face, Sinicization, the common English translation of Zhongguohua, seems to emphasize the process by which a religion or school of thought from outside China not only becomes accepted within the culture, but also makes itself at home, contributing to and becoming part of the culture. Yet, as Ying Fuk-tsang points out, Sinicization is not synonymous with indigenization or localization. The former, as practiced in China today, is a top-down effort to remake religion; the latter two are organic, bottom-up expressions of religion within a host culture. He Guanghu makes the point that “nationalization” or “ethnicization” of religion is a means, not an end, which enables a religion to thrive and develop more effectively. Providing examples from the seventh century, He shows that Sinicization of Christianity has in fact been occurring for as long as Christianity has been in China. In the current case, however, the end goal is not the flourishing of religion within the Chinese context or the ability for a religion to be propagated in culturally appropriate ways, but rather religion’s identification with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its propagation of socialist values.
Chinafication puts the party-state front and center, thus providing a more accurate rendering of the concept as it is currently used in China. Having clawed back much of the authority ceded to Chinese state organs during the reform and opening-up period, President Xi has sought to erase any distinction between the state and its ruling party. To “Chinafy” religion is to bring it firmly under the control of the Communist Party of China (CPC) so it can serve the party’s priorities of national unity and national security. Rooted in China’s long history of state domination of religion, this approach speaks to the role of religion within China’s political culture. One may argue that, for religion to be culturally Chinese, it must find its appropriate place within the state-society hierarchy.
Tracing the history of Zhongguohua, the original term in Chinese, Eva Hanke notes the complicated relationship and ongoing dialogue between the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the CPC, as well as the role of scholars who have sought to use Zhongguohua as a way to make sense of Christianity’s place in Chinese cultural discourse.
The term Zhongguohua also speaks to the geography of the Middle Kingdom in relation to the rest of the world. Chin Ken Pa notes the dual strategy of preventing infiltration and using religion for diplomatic purposes. Bringing religious doctrine into conformity with socialist ideology diminishes religion’s ideological threat, while mobilizing believers to “go global” enhances China’s image among religious communities overseas. Most of China’s Christians would likely agree with He Guanghu’s observation on the benefit of “going out and inviting in”—fostering broader and deeper exchanges with their brothers and sisters around the world. Yet, as Richard Madsen notes, the United Front structures put in place to manage such interactions limit the honest exchange of ideas and the formation of deep relationships.
In their editorial, Naomi Thurston and Jordan Wang ask, “Whose Zhongguohua Is It Anyway?” The articles in this issue highlight the many and diverse voices in China that have tried to define the concept. At the end of the day, however, it is the CPC that drives the current Sinicization campaign. Leaders in China’s official church circles are left to attend more study sessions on following the rules, endure awkward interactions with foreign contacts, and try to strike a balance between honoring the Party and serving the needs of the believers. Both inside and outside the official sphere, meanwhile, China’s Christians pursue the real work of Sinicization in their own unique ways as the gospel continues to take root and flourish in today’s China.
Here at ChinaSource we are undergoing our own rectification of names as we restore the original title of the ChinaSource Journal. In “Flipping the Pages,” Content Manager Andrea Lee relates some of the backstory around this renaming (or un-renaming?). We trust you will enjoy this issue, and we look forward to having you join the conversation.
Brent Fulton
Brent Fulton is the founder of ChinaSource. Dr. Fulton served as the first president of ChinaSource until 2019. Prior to his service with ChinaSource, he served from 1995 to 2000 as the managing director of the Institute for Chinese Studies at Wheaton College. From 1987 to 1995 he served as founding …View Full Bio
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