In the fall of 2009 I visited eight cities in China. I discussed Marxist understanding of religion, homosexuality, the persistence of popular religiosity, freedom of research, and approaches to the study of religion with Chinese colleagues in a carefree and open atmosphere. The Chinese colleagues followed closely what was happening outside and asked me about the schism within the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality. I found many new books on religion by Chinese scholars and translations of Western religious texts selling in local bookstores. I offered lectures on feminist theology in top universities and a Protestant seminary. Religion was no longer a taboo subject. These kinds of exchanges would have been unimaginable twenty years ago.
Kwok Pui-lan
Kwok Pui-lan is Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. She is the author of Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860-1927 (Scholars), Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology (Westminster John Knox), and editor of Hope Abundant: Third World and Indigenous Women’s Theology (Orbis Books).
