A Historical Study Of The Korean Christianity In Harbin In The First Half Of The 20th Century

This paper studies the Christianity history of Korean living in Harbin during the first half of 20 th century. The late Qing Dynasty is the commencement of Korean history in Harbin as well as its Christianity history. The Christianity history of Harbin Korean originates from Korea. After the completion of Chinese Eastern Railway, The Korean emigrating from Russia began their history in Harbin and these emigrants brought uniqueness to feature of their Christianity history in Harbin that there are Russian Orthodox Christians in them although not too many. A chapel was built in Harbin by Methodist Episcopal Church in 1905. In the 1920 s, Korean farmers came to rural areas in the vicinity of Harbin for land reclamation, and the number of Korean in such areas increased gradually, accompanied by the developing trend of Christianity from urban regions to rural areas. Then in the 1930 s, openness of the city contributes to internationalization of Korean Christianity and different sects obtained development at the same time. Since the establishment of communism in Harbin after surrender of Japan, some new changes occurred in Korean Christianity history. In our study, because of the lack of historical materials, we cannot present a detailed and complete discussion on each period. So we studied main characters in Christianity like An Jung-geun, Nan Cixian and Han Mingxi to compensate such shortcoming. After the exploration on Christianity history of Harbin Korean in the first half of 20 th century, we reached conclusions in the following aspects. First, the attitudes Christianity held towards Japanese invasion; then, the relationship between Christianity and communism which is opposed to independent democracy camp and aims to fight for national independence.