Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives by Peter Tze Ming Ng (review)

with much earlier notions of cultivation that had widespread and lasting influence throughout the twelfth to seventeenth centuries and indeed, up to present times. In addition to a rich assortment of texts, the volume includes a “Quanzhen Technical Glossary” (Appendix 1) with 171 terms. Chinese is not included but entries can be cross-referenced with what seems to be a comprehensive “Chinese Character Glossary” (pp. 383–416). Also a welcome feature is a wellorganized nineteen-page index and a substantial bibliography. The scope and volume of material offered in this anthology represent a considerable achievement on the part of the translator that should prove useful for non-specialists. Specialists too should find this a useful source for quickly orienting themselves to a broad swath of texts associated with individuals who shaped Quanzhen ideology, doctrine, and praxis. The work is a welcome addition to the growing list of well-translated texts constituting literary expressions of Chinese religiosity from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. PAUL CROWE Simon Fraser University PETER TZE MING NG, Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives. Religion in Chinese Societies, vol. 4. Leiden: Brill, 2012. xiii, 258 pp. e105, US$144 (hb). ISBN 978-90-04-22574-9 The title of Peter Tze Ming Ng’s recent book is both a statement and a description. Making a statement about “Chinese Christianity” is possibly presumptuous, and one could easily make a claim for the use of “Christianities” instead, and this is also mentioned in the book. However, such a description is also interesting, and with the global presence of Christianity, as well as the particularity of its Chinese manifestations, “global and local” perspectives should always be taken into account when writing about Christianity. Seeing the title, I was therefore curious to read the book to see what new might reveal itself. Starting to read, however, I found a collection of previously published articles and lectures from the last fifteen years, with an added self-reflective introduction by the author. Thefirstchapterdealswiththenotionsof“ChineseChristianity”and“Christianityin China,”andPeterNgpointstothenotionof“three-self”(sanzi三自)anditsimportance toChineseChristianityalreadyinhisintroductorychapter.“Three-self”ismentionedall throughthebook,especiallyinthechaptersonY.T.Wu(WuYaozong吳耀宗)andK.H. Ting (Ding Guangxun 丁光訓). Despite its importance for the development and recent history of Chinese Christianity, the notion and concept of “three-self” is not really critically analyzed, and Peter Ng seems to have more or less accepted the interpretations laid out by Ting and Wu, despite the apparent politicization of the “three-self” idea in China. The book obviously represents a personal reflection and standpoint, but some diversified comments on “three-self” would have been welcome. Other chapters reflect on the Boxer movement, and discuss indigenous Christian movements from the perspective of the Edinburgh conference of 1910. Professor Ng has also added a chapter on Christian education, a topic that he has taken particular interest in. The remaining seven chapters focus on individuals that Ng argues have made particular contributions in regard to the global and local perspectives of Chinese Christianity, including Timothy Richard, Francis Wei (Wei Zhuomin 韋卓民), BOOK REVIEWS 111 T. C. Chao (Zhao Zichen 趙紫宸), and K. H. Ting. Francis Wei, T. C. Chao, and C. Y. Cheng (Cheng Jingyi 誠靜怡) certainly deserve much more attention in the West, and in China, but unfortunately these chapters add little new to what is already available elsewhere. I was glad to see the chapter on Timothy Richard and his translation and understanding of Buddhism, as Richard was undoubtedly an important individual for the development of both China and Christianity. However, his work on Buddhism and role as translator was and is not without controversy. Richard also seems a little out of place in the company of Y. T. Wu and K. H. Ting, and their ideas of indigenization and adaptation. The Richard chapter is only one example of the difficulty to find a clear line for the whole of the book. Professor Ng poses interesting questions in the conclusive chapter (p. 246), such as “How the Chinese people became Christians?” and “Why did the Chinese often say: ‘One more Christian, one less Chinese’?,” and those questions would have better fit the introductory chapter, providing a starting point for the following. Instead of an initial chapter called “My personal...