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Inter-area/Border Crossing
Organized Panel Session
Though Christian missionaries initially saw Asia as a fertile field for conversion, their success varied as local or national contexts changed. By the 19th century, however, the foundations for indigenous leadership of Christian communities had been laid down. International networks that connected churches, missions and lay organizations created new opportunities for Asian Christians to move across maritime, territorial and cultural borders. In terms of mobility males were always privileged, but their interaction with women was central as they sought to establish their credentials as healers, evangelists and community leaders. Covering a hundred years, from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this panel tracks the experiences of six Christian men whose careers traversed a steadily shrinking world. In the process they confronted complex issues regarding the degree to which their own Christian beliefs and Western training could be reconciled with ethnic values and traditional practices in the very different cultures they encountered. The first paper focuses on a Muslim convert from Egypt who became a missionary in China; the second on three Dutch-trained Indonesian doctors who worked in non-Christian communities in the Netherlands Indies; and the third on two Chinese revivalists whose international influence extended into Europe and North America. Taken as a whole, the three papers provide a comparative perspective on the ways in which these individuals responded to the dynamics of local, national and global border-crossings, while considering the implications for the larger history of Asian Christians
Barbara Watson Andaya
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
George Dutton
University of California, Los Angeles
Shuang Wen
New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Barbara Watson Andaya
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
Joshua Dao Wei Sim
National University of Singapore, Singapore
George Dutton
University of California, Los Angeles