The Red Book of Chinese Martyrs: Testimonies and Autobiographical Accounts (review)

This is a gripping book about the ordeals of Chinese Christians at the hands of their persecutors from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s, published earlier as Il libro rosso dei martiri cinesi (Milan, 2006). Gerolamo Fazzini—a professional journalist and the co-director of the monthly magazine Mondo e Missione, published by Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME)—penned the general introduction as well as the introduction to each chapter. Cardinal Zen Ze-Kiun of Hong Kong wrote the preface.

The volume is composed of three autobiographical accounts and two testimonies. In chapter 1, Father Tan Tiande of the Canton diocese recalls his incarceration and his life in a laogai—a “refom through labor” camp—in northeast China between 1951 and 1983. In chapter 2, Father Huang Yongmu of the Hong Kong diocese describes a very similar ordeal. Incarcerated in December 1955 and forced to endure several public trials, he was then sent to a hard labor camp in northeast China. He was released in early 1980. In the next chapter, Li Daonan narrates the story of Father Li Chang, his cousin and close friend. The account, which reads like a hagiography, begins when the priest returns from Rome to his diocese of Meixian in Eastern Guangdong province. The reader then follows the life of Father Li from his first arrest in 1953 and his years in prison and labor camps to his release, resumption of ministry in 1976 and his death in 1981. Chapter 4 is Li Minwen’s 1951 diary of her arrest and five-month “re-education” for being a friend of missionaries. This young school-teacher penned her story on a thin piece of paper that was hidden in the sole of a shoe and later smuggled to Hong Kong. The last chapter is the Via Crucis of the Trappist monks from the monastery of Yangjiaping in Hebei province. During this long summer march in 1947, thirty monks captured by Communist soldiers died of exhaustion and ill treatment. The book ends with a bibliography and two useful appendices on the chronology of the Catholic Church and the structures that control religious policies in the People’s Republic of China.

Regrettably, Fazzini does not reveal anything that is not already known. His accounts have already been published in articles and books. With so many untold stories yet to be revealed, why rehash the same ones? The editor provides no substantial new information and should have taken advantage of his PIME advisers to inject some theological and missiological reflection in his introductions. Instead, he remains too close to his sources and fails to separate the chaff from the precious grain.

The title of the book is somewhat disconcerting because of the several possible meanings “Red Book” could have. It is not a directory, catalog, or reference tool on martyrs. If red, however, refers to the blood shed by martyrs, then the term is superfluous. Likewise, the use of the word martyrs is confusing. My objection does not stemmed from the fact that the Church has not officially recognized the protagonists of these stories as martyrs. On the contrary, I agree with the editor that we are in the presence of so many sufferings, atrocities, and brutalities that these people deserve to be called martyrs and confessors of the faith. What is misleading is that the title fails to mention that the events narrated occurred under Communist rule. The reader therefore is wrongly led to think that the book was just another volume on the “Chinese martyrs” canonized by the Church on October 1, 2000.

The accounts in Fazzini’s book are certainly poignant and spiritually uplifting. They constitute valuable eyewitness sources to understand the perseverance in faith of Christians during long years in prisons and labor camps and to measure the brutality and injustices of the Mao era. Yet, as much as The Gulag...