Author Description

Chinese theologian Kwok Pui-lan draws on a wide variety of archival material to reconstruct the life of Chinese women in the church. She analyzes their participation in social reform, and looks at their relationship to the feminist movement in China. Compared to their Chinese sisters, Christian women had more prolonged exposure to Western civilization through the Christian Church, mission schools, and Christian benevolence. Their responses, shows Kwok, provide rare information on how Chinese women reacted to foreign influences and religion in particular. At the same time, Kwok's study broadens our understanding of how Christianity adapts to and functions in a totally new cultural context.