Tian Feng (magazine)

The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. Tian Feng writings in the late 1940s and early 1950s sometimes exhibited enthusiasm about the prospects of the new society brought about by the Chinese Communist Revolution.[10] Chinese Protestants ceased to credit foreign missionaries for their religious and humanitarian work in China and instead started criticizing them for being tools of Western imperialism.[11] In 1949, Tian Feng became the official organ of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM).[4][lower-alpha 1] That year it published an open letter signed by 19 Chinese Christian leaders calling for the perceived relationship of foreign missionaries and foreign governments to be exposed.[13] The Chinese State Affairs Council had initiated a campaign to denounce foreign missionaries in 1951. Chinese Christian leaders now had to defile their former co-workers and confidants.[14] Many such statements of denouncements were published in Tian Feng.[15] Y. T. Wu, too, had to make a public confession in the magazine for not having supported the communists enough.[16] Others also wrote their confessions in Tian Feng, but were purged. This was the fate of Isaac Wei, the leader of the independent True Jesus Church, who confessed in 1952,[17] but ended up in prison.[18] In 1954, Tian Feng was used to discredit Wang Ming-Dao,[19] a prominent evangelist who was determined to keep his Christian Tabernacle church out of the TSPM.[20][21] He had himself previously published uncompromising essays in the magazine.[22] In 1956 it was the turn of Watchman Nee, a leader of the anti-communist local churches affiliation who had been long persecuted by the government, to be attacked in an editorial of Tian Feng.[23] Hu Feng, a literary theorist who was opposed to politicization of literature,[24] was also discredited on its pages, in 1955.[25]

During the 1950s and 1960s the contents of the magazine were markedly political.[4] It contained views of the newly founded TSPM and its "unique synthesis of Christianity and nationalism".[26] On 28 July 1950, the Chinese government set out "The Christian Manifesto",[27] largely masterminded by Wu,[28] that urged Chinese Christians to pledge allegiance to the new People's Republic.[29] Tian Feng closely followed the success of the manifesto and the number of its signatories that in 1954 had reached 400,000, although this figure has since been disputed.[30] During the 1950s it also published photos of the achievements of the Great Leap Forward.[31] In addition to overtly political material, Tian Feng in its early TSPM years provided an "open forum" for adapting Christianity to the new communist China and some positive results were yielded in public discussions published in the magazine.[32] At times, Tian Feng even acted as the "agony aunt" of Christian communities, coaching them on everyday practice.[26] Local pastors and seminary professors would answer questions submitted by congregations.[33] One article, for instance, gave advice about whether portraits of Mao Zedong needed to be hung on walls in churches.[26] Meanwhile, the publication of essays that continued to condemn missionaries as imperialists continued.[34]

With the mounting ultra-leftist tendencies that would ultimately lead to the Cultural Revolution, Christian activities became constrained. Although Tian Feng continued publication for the time being, its publication of theological articles ended in 1959.[35]

Although the political flavor was toned down from 1960 on, the magazine remained a "mouthpiece of the government". At the same time, issues became progressively thinner until publication ceased in 1964.[31] The paper was continued after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Its first new printing was on 20 October 1980 with 15,000 copies.[36][37]

Throughout the years, Tian Feng acted as an important platform of publishing for K. H. Ting, the chairman of TSPM.[38]

Most recently, since the TSPM and China Christian Council (CCC) have begun their controversial "Reconstruction of Theological Thinking" project, Tian Feng has lost subscribers.[39]

• Aikman, David (2012). Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power. Washington: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59698-652-7.
• Bays, Daniel H. (2003). "Chinese Protestant Christianity Today". The China Quarterly. 174: 488–504. doi:10.1017/S0009443903000299. ISSN 0305-7410. S2CID 154565523.
• Keating, John Craig William (2012). A Protestant Church in Communist China: Moore Memorial Church Shanghai 1949–1989. Bethlehem, PA: Leigh University Press. ISBN 978-1-61146-091-9.
• Starr, Chloë (2016). Chinese Theology: Text and Context. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-22493-1.
• Towery, Britt (2000). Christianity in Today's China: Taking Root Downward, Bearing Fruit Upward. The Tao Foundation Missionary. ISBN 978-1-58721-410-3.
• Wickeri, Philip L. (2011). Seeking the Common Ground: Protestant Christianity, the Three-Self Movement, and China's United Front. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-61097-529-2.
• — (2015). Reconstructing Christianity in China: K.H. Ting and the Chinese Church. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-60833-366-0.