Projection And Remodeling:A Study On The Social Impression Of The Methodist Church In The Border Region Of Sichuan,Yunnan,and Guizhou(1860~1951)

The Christianity development in modern China has caught the attention of academia.There are also many research about the social impression of Protestantism in China.But the existing relevant research foocused on the macro level.Therefore,it is difficult to clearly understand that different groups had shaped impressions of the Protestantism.The paper regards the Protestantism social impression as the research object and the breakthrough point and the Methodist Churches in the border region of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou as a case.It researches the change process the impression of Methodist Churches in the various social classes in the region.Firstly,this paper summarizes the differences of social culture,social organization and economic transportation in the border region of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou in modern times.This is the social background that the local different groups shaped the impression of the Methodist church.Secondly,the social impression before Methodist church was introduced into the border region of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou related to Catholicism and foreigners.A series of incidents directly shaped the bad impression of Christianity and foreigners in the local society.Limited by the existing knowledge and culture,the local groups usually saw Catholicism and foreigners as the whole of Christianity or the western culture.It was,then,projected onto the Methodist church.In addition,there is the conflict between the Chinese culture with the core values of Confucianism and the Christian culture.As a result,Methodist missionaries in the border region of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou were in trouble at the beginning.Third,after Methodist missionaries were hindered in their mission,on the one hand,they began to vigorously promote their ministries in the local,and on the other hand,they also began to shift their focus to non-Han cultural communities.Methodist missionaries have successfully remodeled their impression through a variety of preaching methods and ministry activities.However,the social impression of Methodist society is more complicated than before because of the different starting points of thinking Methodist society.Generally speaking,the society impression of Methodist in the border region of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou in modern time was becoming better and better.In the last part,foot binding is taken as an example to analyze the common ground or not between Han cultural society,non-Han cultural society and Methodist society,so as to explain the reasons for the development differences of Methodist society in different societies.At the sametimes,there is a summarize about the whole paper.The reason why the Methodist church w-as able to make remarkable achievements in the border region of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou in modern times has something to do with the remodeling of its social impression.Where was once regarded as backward has become a "holy land" of culture and education,which has to do with the Methodist church.The phenomenon of the change of social impression of Methodist church in the border of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guizhou in modern times provides a model to understand the impression of Christianity in different Chinese societies for us.And at the same time,it provides an example to glimpse various social changes and policies from the center to the border.