Mobility and Identity: Christianity and the Making of Local Society in Northeast China, 1840–1945

Abstract

Unlike other parts of China, most Catholic villages in Manchuria or northeast China developed out of domestic immigrant settlements from Shandong and Hebei provinces. This article studies identity formation of these communities during the century between the establishment of the Catholic Manchuria Mission in 1840 and the extension of the state into rural society until the end of the Japanese rule in 1945. In examining the dual processes of integrating Catholic immigrants into a global Catholic Church and state structure in modern times, it argues that these communities established a strong Catholic identity within a short period because they were homogeneous and developed strong group cohesion during the transformation of Manchurian local society. Thus they survived many political storms even to the present day.