Highland Christianity : Modern Transformations of the China-Southeast Asia Borderlands (World Christianity)

Lian (EDT)/ Bradley, David (EDT)/ Litzinger, Ralph A. (EDT)

Pennsylvania State University Press（2026/03発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 274 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780271101262
• DDC分類 275

Full Description

Christianity has become one of the most powerful markers of identity in the mountainous borderlands of China and Southeast Asia, also known as Zomia. This region is home to tens of millions of people—including the Ahmao, the Kachin, the Lisu, and many other highlanders—all living at a far remove from the population centers of the lowlands. This volume explores how their creative engagement with Christianity has transformed their communities and reshaped their relationships with nation-states and dominant cultures.

Highland Christianity brings together indigenous, in-group scholars and external researchers to examine Christianity's complex entanglement with ethnicity and modernity across eastern Zomia. Chapters investigate mass conversions, the creation of Bible orthographies, the indigenization of Christian practice, and the tensions Christianization generated with lowland states and majority populations. Contributors highlight the dramas and ambiguities of these changes while foregrounding the creative agency of highland peoples in reworking the faith to generate cohesion, cultural capital, and renewed forms of belonging. Moving beyond colonial frameworks, this interdisciplinary volume maps the profound and ongoing transformations of communities across this borderland region. It will be an essential resource for scholars and students of world Christianity, Asian studies, and anthropology.

In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Aminta Arrington, Chijui Hu, Jianxiong Ma, Pum Za Mang, Lagai Zau Nan, Anh-Minh Nguyen-Dang, Yoichi Nishimoto, and Zhu Jili.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Lian Xi

Part 1: The Beginnings of Highland Christianity

chapter 1 Christianity, Modernity, and the Karen in Burma

Pum Za Mang

chapter 2 Baptist Christianity in the Making of Modern Kachin Identity in Burma

Lagai Zau Nan

chapter 3 Beyond Belief: Conversion to Christianity Among the Highlanders in Kon Tum, Vietnam, 1850-1945

Anh-Minh Nguyen-Dang

chapter 4 The Family of William Young Among the Lahu: Baptist Mission on the Border Between China and Burma

Jianxiong Ma

chapter 5 The Making of a Modern Ahmao Intellectual: Han Jie and A Brief History of the Flowery Miao

Zh u Jili

Part 2: Ethnic Christianity on the Margins of Nation-States

chapter 6 Eschatological Beliefs in the Christianity of the Miao in Southwestern China, 1950-1960

Chijui Hu

chapter 7 The Baptist Church's Civilizing Project and the Lahu's Appropriation of Christianity: A Case Study of the Christian and the Traditionalist Lahu of Northern Thailand

Yoichi Nishimoto

chapter 8 Performing Expressive Culture, Performing Governance, and Performing Togetherness: The Church as a Stage for the Display of Lisu Identity

Aminta Arrington

Part 3: Borderland Christianity in Comparative Perspective 201

chapter 9 Christianity and Writing on the China-Southeast Asia Border

David Bradley

chapter 10 Productions of Knowledge About Highland Christianity on China's Southeast Asia Frontier: A Historical Review

Lian Xi

Selected Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index