Zhabei Church: The Founding Church of the Chinese Church-Independence Movement

Basic information

This section is about a church. But it is more than that — it is a piece of history: the history of Chinese people running the church themselves, and it begins here.

1888: the staff of the Commercial Press, worshipping in Hongkou

The starting point of Zhabei Church is not in Zhabei but in Hongkou.

In 1888 (some say 1890) the American Presbyterian missionary John Farnham set up a "Presbyterian church" in Hongkou. The people this congregation first served were unusual — the staff of the Commercial Press.

The printers, editors and apprentices of a publishing house needed somewhere to worship in a city far from home. The bond between one church and one publishing house began on that day and lasted more than a century.

(The Commercial Press later moved to Baoshan Road in Zhabei — and Zhabei Church came along with it. See the former site of the Commercial Press and the Oriental Library.)

Yu Guozhen: a pastor who wanted "independence"

In 1894 the Chinese pastor Yu Guozhen took charge of the congregation.

He put forward a proposition that was extremely bold for its day:

The Chinese church should be independent and self-governing, and not subject to the control of foreign mission boards.

In 1903–1904 he led the congregation in breaking away from the mission board, and with donated money bought land and built a church on Haining Road, naming it "the Shanghai North Haining Road Self-Supporting Presbyterian Church" —

this is regarded as one of the landmark events of the Chinese church-independence movement. From this church onward, Chinese believers ran their own church for the first time with their own money and under their own name.

In 1920 the self-supporting movement held its national joint conference at Zhabei Church in Shanghai, and Yu Guozhen was elected president of the national general assembly. The Zhabei Church congregation he led was the large congregation in which independence was most thoroughly realised within the Suzhou presbytery.

Zhabei Church has therefore been called by later generations "the founding church and base area of the church-independence movement in our country".

1916: 340 Baotong Road

The congregation kept growing, and the church on Haining Road was no longer big enough.

In 1914 Yu Guozhen exchanged property and bought land on Baotong Road (near the Commercial Press); in 1916 the new church was completed, named "the Zhabei Self-Supporting Presbyterian Church".

It stood on the same street as the Commercial Press. By day the lead type of the publishing house was being set; on Sundays the Press's staff sang hymns here — this was the everyday of Zhabei in the 1910s and 1920s: industry and faith running side by side along one road.

1923–1924: the "Zhabei Church incident"

There is one page in the history of Zhabei Church that is not glorious, but it has to be written.

In 1923–1924 a fierce dispute broke out between the Presbyterian mission and the self-supporting association over the ownership of Zhabei Church. In this "Zhabei Church incident" the Presbyterian side brought to bear church authority, money, the law and public opinion, and in the end drove Yu Guozhen out of Zhabei Church — the property passed to the Presbyterian system.

Although Yu Guozhen had the support of the local government and the courts, he could not hold on to the church he had built with his own hands. After that, the self-supporting movement declined from its height.

This history reminds us: independence is not a slogan; it needs institutions, it needs strength, and it needs a country with full sovereignty behind it. This episode at Zhabei Church is a miniature of Chinese society in that era.

1927: a change of banners

In 1927 Zhabei Church joined the Church of Christ in China and was renamed "the Zhabei Church of the Church of Christ in China" (Zhabei Church for short).

In the same year the third armed uprising of the Shanghai workers broke out. The believers of Zhabei Church who worked at the Commercial Press joined the uprising together with their fellow workers. The young believer Chen Anfang died while rescuing the wounded, leaving a daughter only six months old.

And so the name of a church became bound up with the revolutionary history of a city.

Destroyed and rebuilt twice

In the dozen years that followed, Zhabei Church went through its most devastating years:

Twice burned down by the same enemy, twice rebuilt. A church's "destroyed and rebuilt twice" and the ground it stands on are two sides of one history.

1958: sixteen churches made one

In 1958 the different denominations of Zhabei District's Christianity came together, and sixteen churches in the district were merged into Zhabei Church — it became the united place of worship for Zhabei's Christianity.

After 1966 church activities were forced to stop, and Zhabei Church was occupied by a factory. In the second half of 1981 the church was recovered and repaired, and in July 1982 it reopened. In 1987 a new small hall and office building were added.

In 1996, to meet the needs of believers in the Pengpu area, Zhabei Church built a branch at 1555 Linfen Road — that is Lingquan Church. A century-old church had sent out a branch to the east.

A "living" cultural relic

On 6 January 2004 Zhabei Church was announced as a district-registered immovable cultural relic of Zhabei.

What makes it a "relic" is not only the building but what is kept inside it:

• the church-history corridor, the church-independence-history corridor and the patriotic-education corridor — a church that has turned its own history into three corridors you can walk through;
• the Pastors' Memorial Room: a portrait of Yu Guozhen, the Third-Class "Jiahe Medal" he was awarded, a long hand-copied scroll of the Bible in calligraphy, and his belongings;
• the belongings of the Reverend Chen Yinuo, the Reverend Xu Daowu and the preacher Dai Huizhen — the handwriting of several generations of pastors is kept in this church.

In March 2023 Jing'an District's first "patriotic and church-loving publicity corner for places of religious activity" was unveiled here, in the Pastors' Memorial Room.

The best "protection" a church can have is to still be in use, and still be told.

Practical tips

1. This is a place of religious activity still in use — service times are subject to the notices inside, and visitors should keep quiet and respect the observances;
2. look at three things: the building that stands at 340 Baotong Road (rebuilt in 1947), the three corridors inside, and the Pastors' Memorial Room;
3. reading on: it stands on the same street as the former site of the Commercial Press and the Oriental Library — a publishing house, a church and a burned library: this short stretch of Baoshan Road holds half of modern China's cultural history; Sanzeng Lane and the Huzhou Guild Hall are nearby as well;
4. how to read it alongside others: it and Lingquan Church are "mother church and branch" — one at the edge of the old Chinese city on Baoshan Road, one in the workers' village of Pengpu; together the two churches are a century of Zhabei's Christian history.

Connections

• Sub-district：Baoshan Road Subdistrict
• See also：Lingquan Church, The Commercial Press and the Oriental Library, Sanzeng Lane and Huzhou Guild Hall, Baoshan Road Subdistrict

Sources: that its predecessor the "Hongkou Presbyterian Church" was founded in 1888 (some say 1890), set up in Hongkou by the American Presbyterian missionary John Farnham and at first serving the staff of the Commercial Press; that Yu Guozhen was engaged as pastor in 1894 and championed church independence; that the "Shanghai North Haining Road Self-Supporting Presbyterian Church" was built on Haining Road in 1903–1904; that property was exchanged and land bought on Baotong Road near the Commercial Press in 1914 and the new church completed in 1916 under the name "the Zhabei Self-Supporting Presbyterian Church"; that in 1920 the self-supporting movement held its national joint conference at Zhabei Church in Shanghai and Yu Guozhen was elected president of the national general assembly; the "Zhabei Church incident" of 1923–1924 (the dispute between the Presbyterian mission and the self-supporting association over ownership, Yu Guozhen's forced departure, and the decline of the movement); the joining of the Church of Christ in China and the renaming as "the Zhabei Church of the Church of Christ in China" in 1927; the participation of Zhabei Church believers who worked at the Commercial Press in the third armed uprising of the Shanghai workers in 1927 and the death of the young believer Chen Anfang while rescuing the wounded (leaving a six-month-old daughter); its destruction in the "January 28" incident of 1932, the congregation's donated rebuilding in 1936, its destruction again in the "August 13" incident of 1937 (the new church in use for only one year) and the building of a new church in 1947; the merger of sixteen churches of Zhabei District into Zhabei Church in 1958; the stopping of activities after 1966 and the occupation by a factory, its recovery in the second half of 1981, its reopening in July 1982 and the new small hall and office building of 1987; and the building of the branch Lingquan Church at 1555 Linfen Road in 1996 follow the introduction "Shanghai Zhabei Church" on the China Christian website, the Baidu Baike entry "Zhabei Church" and the Wikipedia entry "Zhabei Church" (cross-checked against several sources, Grade B); "listed on 6 January 2004 as a district-registered immovable cultural relic of Zhabei", the church-history / church-independence-history / patriotic-education corridors, and the description "the founding church and base area of the church-independence movement in our country" follow the Baidu Baike entry "Zhabei Church" and the same Wikipedia entry (Grade B); the Pastors' Memorial Room (the portrait of Yu Guozhen, the Third-Class Jiahe Medal, the long hand-copied scroll of the Bible in calligraphy, and the belongings of Chen Yinuo, Xu Daowu and Dai Huizhen) and the unveiling on 21 March 2023 of Jing'an District's first "patriotic and church-loving publicity corner for places of religious activity" follow the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs' "Jing'an District Holds the Unveiling Ceremony of the First 'Patriotic and Church-Loving Publicity Corner for Places of Religious Activity'" (Grade B). The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.