Mapping Christianity in China Workshop: a Global Event
By Daryl Ireland, Research Assistant Professor of Mission
On November 19-21, 2020, the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University convened a workshop on “Mapping Christianity in China, 1550-1950.” The Center launched the China Historical Christian Database (CHCD) project in 2018 to map where every Christian church, school, hospital, monastery, orphanage, publishing house, and the like were located in China between 1550 and 1950. The project also seeks to identify who worked inside those buildings, both foreigners and Chinese. The goal is to build a tool that can create spatial maps of when and where Christians were located in China, and a resource that can generate social network maps of Christian actors.
The workshop was designed to mark a milestone in the project. The China Historical Christian Database is exiting its proof-of-concept phase (beta version). Before dramatically upscaling, it was important to get input from various stakeholders. The Boston University Center for the Study of Asia (BUCSA) and the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA) provided the funds that allowed 266 people from twenty-eight countries, from the United States to Vatican City to Malaysia, to attend the virtual event. Scholars, computer scientists, and archivists worked together to lay out a pathway for the CHCD to become transformative for the study of modern China and modern Chinese Christianity. The sessions were recorded and are available at chcdatabase.com.