About Us

AIMS

This project aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic documentation of the history of the Adventist movement in China and to Chinese people from ancient time to today. A work of this magnitude requires the collaborative efforts of many individuals. If you are interested in contributing to this project, please contact the Project Director, Bruce W. Lo, lobw@uwec.edu.

References

1. Charbonnier, Jean-Pierre (2002), Histoire des Chretiens de Chine (Original French edition), Les Indes Savantes, Paris; M.N.L. Couve de Murville (2007), English translator, Christians in China: A.D. 600 to 2000, Ignatius Press: San Francisco, CA.

2. Bays, Daniel H. (2005) The Foreign Missionary Movement of the 19th and 20th Centuries, National Humanities Center, retrieved 1/4/2013 from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/fmmovementb.htm

3. Bays, Daniel H. (2011), A New History of Christianity in China, Wiley-Blackwell: Hoboken, NJ, ISBN-13‏: ‎ 978-1405159548.

Why Adventism in China?

The Seventh-day Adventist movement plays a not insignificant role in China's transition into modern nationhood particularly during the early parts of the 20th century. Existing accounts of the Adventist history in China tend to be piecemeal and fragmentary, or are told often from a single perspective (e.g. for the consumption of certain audience, or from the eyes of specific individuals or interest-groups). Thus it is difficult to get a complete or objective picture of what actually transpired during the course of history. The Adventism in China project attempts to develop a Wiki-site, based on the online collaborative model, to provide a set of more objective, systematic, and multi-perspective documentation.

Features

These are the distinguishing features of the Adventism in China Wiki-site:

  • Multilingual presentation - initially the site will be in English; the site is being translated to Chinese.

  • Multiple search capability - information on the site may be search by many different perspectives: by name of individuals, church institutions, church chronology, political period, or geographical regions.

  • Both expatriate and indigenous perspectives - Most of the Adventist history in China are recorded by expatriate missionaries. The French historian, Jean Charbonnier1 argued that no account of "Christianity in China" is complete unless it also includes meaningful accounts of the Chinese Christians themselves. Here we present accounts of the works done by indigenous Chinese Adventists.

  • Acknowledgement of significant contributions from women pioneers - Most existing historical accounts tends to focus on the works of the male members of patriarchs, overlooking that woman missionaries actually out numbered men during the 19th and early 20th centuries2. This project aims to provide a more balanced account of the contributions from both genders.

  • Inclusion of the stories of overseas Chinese Adventists - Past accounts focused on the Adventist churches in China mainland only, but overseas Chinese Adventists played and continue to play a significant role. We provide stories of the Chinese Adventists churches and workers in oversea countries, e.g. Southeast Asia, North America, Australia etc., where there are significant groups of Chinese Adventist believers.

  • Availability of supporting resources including:

People behind the Project

Foundation Project Team

Edward Allen, PhD

Chin-Lee Chan, MS, MA, MDivEqv

Terence Chan, MD

Bruce W Lo, PhD (Project Director)

Ruth S Lo, PhD

Shirley Mann

Lillian Ng

Sharon Sung, MD

Foundation Editorial Committee

Edward Allen, PhD

Samuel Chiu, DTh

Daniel Chuah, PhD

Robert Folkenberg Jr. DM, 傅博仁

Eugene Huang

Bruce W Lo, PhD

Sharon Sung, MD

Dorothy Zane

Editorial Consultants

Benson Shiu

Chook Ying Wu

Samuel Young

Contributing Authors

For the names of the large number of peoples who have contributed to the writing of articles on this project, please click on this link:

Contributing Authors.

For potential authors who wish to write articles for the AIC project, please consult this page for article format and guidelines:

Potential Author Info

To submit your article, please email your article in WORD format to the project director Bruce W. Lo at lobw@uwec.edu.

Research Historians

For the names of the research scholars who are engaging in historical research on the history of the Adventist movement in China, please click this link:

AIC Research Network.

Center for Chinese Adventist Heritage

For the names of people responsible for the CCAH (Center for Chinese Adventist Heritage), please consult this page:

HeritageCenter

For CONTACT please write to: Bruce W. Lo at lobw@uwec.edu