ABSTRACT
Many nineteenth-century Christians considered the Gothic style as the universal style for church buildings. Therefore Catholic, Anglican and other Christian missionaries exported Gothic worldwide. The main characteristics of Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture are modular and repetitive structures, rib vaults, elaborate buttressing systems, pointed arches, and large traceried windows. The chapter provides an overview of the various Gothic looking vaulting systems that the missionaries experienced in China and contextualizes China's Gothic churches in the complex architectural debate on construction techniques, building materials, style, economy, and Christian identities. Because building traditional stone and brick Gothic vaults in China was hardly possible, other vaulting techniques were experienced. The chapter examines how missionaries circumvent the issue of stone and brick rib vaults by building wooden imitations of brick vaults. A remarkable archival inner view of the church of Xinjing under construction shows the completed planks and lathwork, before the coating with lime. The church is of hall type with wooden trunks as columns.
