ABSTRACT
The history and current situation of the Catholic Church in China, nationally and locally, present female religious with challenges different from those experienced by followers of Islam and Daoism. While Islam is ‘foreign’ in origin, in the case of Hui Muslims in central China, over the centuries it has become incorporated into, and a part of, a mainstream Chinese identity. Daoism is considered ‘indigenous’ and intimately interwoven with Chinese high civilization and popular culture alike. In contrast, Catholic history in China contends with its troubling associations of opportunistic Catholic missionizing among impoverished populations. In the ever-present subtexts of contemporary political discourse, the historical entry of Catholicism into Chinese society remains tainted in the national memory by superimposed unequal treaties which sustained an enforced economy of addiction and by Western military encroachments into the sovereignty of a weakened Imperial China. Charges of unpatriotic or disloyal conduct, however unspoken, still weigh heavily on the Catholic institutions in Kaifeng and Jingang in the intensifying patriotism accompanying China’s emergence as a confident superpower. So does the ‘complex game of co-operation and conflict that is evolving in uncertain directions’ between the Vatican and the Chinese Party/State over the allegiance of Chinese Catholics (Madsen, 2003: 487). 1 Complex transnational and local factors alike are shaping the multifaceted nature of Chinese Catholic identity. They impinge on women’s choices of a religious vocation or religious life as Catholic nuns and Shouzhen guniang.
