I am a historian trained in three countries — China (B.A. and M.A. at Peking University), USA (Ph.D. at The University of Michigan), and France (Chateaubriand Scholar at the EHESS). My research area centers on the social and religious history of late imperial and modern China, especially the history of Christianity, religion and local society, and women and gender.
Missions Étrangères de Paris (mep) and China from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, 2021
The first scholarly work on the subject by leading scholars in the field, Missions Étrangères de ... more The first scholarly work on the subject by leading scholars in the field, Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) and China examines the variety of ways in which MEP missionaries complemented and complicated Catholic Church and French engagement with Chinese society. Key players in the Church’s overseas missions in the Far East, many MEP missionaries spent their entire lives working with ordinary Chinese. This volume explores the proactive engagement of MEP missionaries in Bible translation and cultural accommodation, their evangelization efforts in local communities, and the interaction between MEP representatives and various local groups. Each study in this book responds to one or more of the major themes in the history of Christianity in China that include conflicts, accommodations, indigenization, imperialism, and nationalism. Contributors are François Barriquand, Jean Charbonnier, Yanrong Chen, Lina Guo, Zhijie Kang, Ji Li, Matthieu Masson, Jean-Paul Wiest, Qing Wu, Hongyan Xiang, Ernest Young, and Aidong Zhao.
At the Frontier of God's Empire: A Missionary Odyssey in Modern China, 2023
To a lively cast of international players that shaped Manchuria during the early twentieth centur... more To a lively cast of international players that shaped Manchuria during the early twentieth century, At the Frontier of God’s Empire adds the remarkable story of Alfred Marie Caubrière (1876-1948). A French Catholic missionary, Caubrière arrived in Manchuria on the eve of the Boxer Uprising in 1899 and was murdered on the eve of the birth of the People’s Republic of China in 1948. Living with ordinary Chinese people for half a century, Caubrière witnessed the collapse of the Qing empire, the warlord’s chaos that followed, the rise and fall of Japanese Manchukuo, and the emergence of communist China. Caubrière’s incredible personal archive, on which Ji Li draws extensively, opens a unique window into everyday interaction between Manchuria’s grassroots society and international players. His gripping accounts personalize the Catholic Church’s expansion in East Asia and the interplay of missions and empire in local society.
Through Caubrière’s experience, At the Frontier of God’s Empire examines Chinese people at social and cultural margins during this period. A wealth of primary sources, family letters, and visual depictions of village scenes illuminate vital issues in modern Chinese history, such as the transformation of local society, mass migration and religion, tensions between church and state, and the importance of cross-cultural exchanges in everyday life in Chinese Catholic communities. This intense transformation of Manchurian society embodies the clash of both domestic and international tensions in the making of modern China.
God's Little Daughters examines a set of letters written by Chinese Catholic women from a small v... more God's Little Daughters examines a set of letters written by Chinese Catholic women from a small village in Manchuria to their French missionary, "Father Lin," or Dominique Maurice Pourquié, who in 1870 had returned to France in poor health after spending twenty-three years at the local mission of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP).
The letters were from three sisters of the Du family, who had taken religious vows and committed themselves to a life of contemplation and worship that allowed them rare privacy and the opportunity to learn to read and write. Inspired by a close reading of the letters, Ji Li explores how French Catholic missionaries of the MEP translated and disseminated their Christian message in northeast China from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, and how these converts interpreted and transformed their Catholic faith to articulate an awareness of self. The interplay of religious experience, rhetorical skill, and gender relations revealed in the letters allow us to reconstruct the neglected voices of Catholic women in rural China. JI LI is research assistant professor of history at the University of Hong Kong.
"God's Little Daughters is an interesting historical study based on an examination of the documents of the MEP in Manchuria. These documents may arouse the curiosity and passion of the researcher." -R. Po-chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City
"This work contributes to the study of women and gender in modern China, the expansion of literacy and educational access for women, and the role of the Catholic Church as it relates to these themes. It furthers our understanding of public and private spheres in China and the development of a new sense of privacy." -Robert Entenmann, professor of history and Asian studies, St. Olaf College
One feature of Chinese Catholicism, as identified by official Chinese investigation, is that most... more One feature of Chinese Catholicism, as identified by official Chinese investigation, is that most Chinese Catholics belong to traditional Catholic families and communities, which include generations of believers. This is a relatively stable religious population, whose growth depends largely on the continuity of the family and the community. To explore the origins of this legacy, this article studies the formation and early development of Chinese Catholic communities in Northeast China and their models of religious governance. It argues that the widespread Catholic missions since the 19th century diffused not only religion but also notions of autonomy and models of local governance among Chinese Christians. Based on archival research and fieldwork, the article focuses on two Catholic communities in Northeast China. These two cases demonstrate that the early development of Northeast Catholic communities was largely due to immigration and the absence of the state. The growth of the community coincided with the formation of local society. Although the expansion of state power to rural society gradually eroded the traditional nexus of power at the village level, the local religious order in the Catholic communities survived until the mid-20th century. This religious autonomy left a legacy that turned out to be extremely problematic in the post-1949 era. From a historical perspective, this study contributes to our understanding of contemporary outcomes for the Chinese Catholic population and the origins of China’s church-state relations at the grassroots level.
Transformation of religious practice in twentieth-century China encompassed destruction of local ... more Transformation of religious practice in twentieth-century China encompassed destruction of local traditions, confrontation with Christianity and imperialism, and reconstruction of “religion” in the context of state-building. Four recent books engage alternative themes—resistance and suffering or flexibility and adaptation—that characterized this deconstruction and reinvention. Indigenization of Christianity involved violence and struggle, while other Chinese religions tacitly conformed to the new norms of the modern state.
Focusing on the Manchuria Mission that was founded by the MEP in the height of nineteenth-century... more Focusing on the Manchuria Mission that was founded by the MEP in the height of nineteenth-century missionary expansion, In this chapter I analyze the Catechism and Regulations of the mission, as well as missionary statistical parish reports. Understanding how Christianity took root in an Asian context requires that we not only study the universality of the Christian message and the inclusiveness of the missionary effort, but also the mechanisms, institutions, actors, and processes that interpret the Christian message through specific language, behavior, and belief. In this paper I discuss how the MEP translated the catechism to introduce the concepts and rituals of Christian faith to the rural Chinese; how they designed the Regulation of the Mission to teach the catechism and to enforce Church discipline on missionaries, catechumen, and converts; and how they required systematic parish reports to measure and assess the success of local religious experience. This translation practice includes not only literal languages of French/Latin and Chinese but also numerical language that observes and measures the ‘faith’ of local converts. Such statistical assessments are often ignored in the history of evangelization. How often must a convert confess to become a “good” Christian? How many times must communion be conducted in a village to turn it into a “good” Christian community? MEP missionaries in northeast China had also to confront this translation from experience to explanations in the broader context of French Catholicism and French overseas Empire building.
The history of Christianity in China has become a very promising field in recent years. This pape... more The history of Christianity in China has become a very promising field in recent years. This paper uses the example of a recent study on the history of Catholicism in Manchuria and examines new trends in the study of Christianity in China. By focusing on different perspectives, new sources, theories and methodologies, this paper offers a reflection on the purpose of systematic exploration of church records. It further examines the means of analysis and interpretation of historical documents using interdisciplinary methods within a global perspective.
Faith, Gender, and Literacy: The Du Letters and Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Northeast China... more Faith, Gender, and Literacy: The Du Letters and Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Northeast China
19世纪中叶，天主教满洲宗座代牧区（Apostolic Vicariate of Manchuria）成立，由法国巴黎外方传教会管理。与中国其他具有天主教传统的地区不同，19世纪之前，涉足中国... more 19世纪中叶，天主教满洲宗座代牧区（Apostolic Vicariate of Manchuria）成立，由法国巴黎外方传教会管理。与中国其他具有天主教传统的地区不同，19世纪之前，涉足中国东北的天主教传教士极少，而东北的天主教徒则多为来自山东等地的天主教移民。19世纪欧洲天主教传教运动复兴，法国尤盛。在此大背景下，由法国传教士组成的巴黎外方传教会成为满洲代牧区建立和发展的主要推动力量。在其前辈传教士中国传教工作的基础上，这批19世纪的传教士具有新的特点。例如，他们并不认同早期耶稣会士的传教策略，他们致力于建立一套严格有序的教会制度、刻意强调天主教教义与仪式的严谨、以地方天主教移民家庭为中心建立天主教村落、广泛建立要理学房与天主教学校、关注女性教徒。在东北，许多天主教村落延续至今，与19世纪这批传教士的工作密切相关。本文基于笔者过去数年对巴黎外方传教会满洲代牧区档案文献的发掘、整理和解读，力图梳理19世纪天主教在东北地区的发展过程，并将此历史过程置于19世纪欧洲天主教复兴的历史背景之中。笔者还希望将文献的爬梳和文本解读，与新的史学分析方法相结合，探讨如何重新发掘和利用教会材料，进一步扩展“基督教在中国”这一主题的研究视野。
Missions Étrangères de Paris (mep) and China from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, 2021
The first scholarly work on the subject by leading scholars in the field, Missions Étrangères de ... more The first scholarly work on the subject by leading scholars in the field, Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) and China examines the variety of ways in which MEP missionaries complemented and complicated Catholic Church and French engagement with Chinese society. Key players in the Church’s overseas missions in the Far East, many MEP missionaries spent their entire lives working with ordinary Chinese. This volume explores the proactive engagement of MEP missionaries in Bible translation and cultural accommodation, their evangelization efforts in local communities, and the interaction between MEP representatives and various local groups. Each study in this book responds to one or more of the major themes in the history of Christianity in China that include conflicts, accommodations, indigenization, imperialism, and nationalism. Contributors are François Barriquand, Jean Charbonnier, Yanrong Chen, Lina Guo, Zhijie Kang, Ji Li, Matthieu Masson, Jean-Paul Wiest, Qing Wu, Hongyan Xiang, Ernest Young, and Aidong Zhao.
At the Frontier of God's Empire: A Missionary Odyssey in Modern China, 2023
To a lively cast of international players that shaped Manchuria during the early twentieth centur... more To a lively cast of international players that shaped Manchuria during the early twentieth century, At the Frontier of God’s Empire adds the remarkable story of Alfred Marie Caubrière (1876-1948). A French Catholic missionary, Caubrière arrived in Manchuria on the eve of the Boxer Uprising in 1899 and was murdered on the eve of the birth of the People’s Republic of China in 1948. Living with ordinary Chinese people for half a century, Caubrière witnessed the collapse of the Qing empire, the warlord’s chaos that followed, the rise and fall of Japanese Manchukuo, and the emergence of communist China. Caubrière’s incredible personal archive, on which Ji Li draws extensively, opens a unique window into everyday interaction between Manchuria’s grassroots society and international players. His gripping accounts personalize the Catholic Church’s expansion in East Asia and the interplay of missions and empire in local society.
Through Caubrière’s experience, At the Frontier of God’s Empire examines Chinese people at social and cultural margins during this period. A wealth of primary sources, family letters, and visual depictions of village scenes illuminate vital issues in modern Chinese history, such as the transformation of local society, mass migration and religion, tensions between church and state, and the importance of cross-cultural exchanges in everyday life in Chinese Catholic communities. This intense transformation of Manchurian society embodies the clash of both domestic and international tensions in the making of modern China.
God's Little Daughters examines a set of letters written by Chinese Catholic women from a small v... more God's Little Daughters examines a set of letters written by Chinese Catholic women from a small village in Manchuria to their French missionary, "Father Lin," or Dominique Maurice Pourquié, who in 1870 had returned to France in poor health after spending twenty-three years at the local mission of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP).
The letters were from three sisters of the Du family, who had taken religious vows and committed themselves to a life of contemplation and worship that allowed them rare privacy and the opportunity to learn to read and write. Inspired by a close reading of the letters, Ji Li explores how French Catholic missionaries of the MEP translated and disseminated their Christian message in northeast China from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, and how these converts interpreted and transformed their Catholic faith to articulate an awareness of self. The interplay of religious experience, rhetorical skill, and gender relations revealed in the letters allow us to reconstruct the neglected voices of Catholic women in rural China. JI LI is research assistant professor of history at the University of Hong Kong.
"God's Little Daughters is an interesting historical study based on an examination of the documents of the MEP in Manchuria. These documents may arouse the curiosity and passion of the researcher." -R. Po-chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City
"This work contributes to the study of women and gender in modern China, the expansion of literacy and educational access for women, and the role of the Catholic Church as it relates to these themes. It furthers our understanding of public and private spheres in China and the development of a new sense of privacy." -Robert Entenmann, professor of history and Asian studies, St. Olaf College
One feature of Chinese Catholicism, as identified by official Chinese investigation, is that most... more One feature of Chinese Catholicism, as identified by official Chinese investigation, is that most Chinese Catholics belong to traditional Catholic families and communities, which include generations of believers. This is a relatively stable religious population, whose growth depends largely on the continuity of the family and the community. To explore the origins of this legacy, this article studies the formation and early development of Chinese Catholic communities in Northeast China and their models of religious governance. It argues that the widespread Catholic missions since the 19th century diffused not only religion but also notions of autonomy and models of local governance among Chinese Christians. Based on archival research and fieldwork, the article focuses on two Catholic communities in Northeast China. These two cases demonstrate that the early development of Northeast Catholic communities was largely due to immigration and the absence of the state. The growth of the community coincided with the formation of local society. Although the expansion of state power to rural society gradually eroded the traditional nexus of power at the village level, the local religious order in the Catholic communities survived until the mid-20th century. This religious autonomy left a legacy that turned out to be extremely problematic in the post-1949 era. From a historical perspective, this study contributes to our understanding of contemporary outcomes for the Chinese Catholic population and the origins of China’s church-state relations at the grassroots level.
Transformation of religious practice in twentieth-century China encompassed destruction of local ... more Transformation of religious practice in twentieth-century China encompassed destruction of local traditions, confrontation with Christianity and imperialism, and reconstruction of “religion” in the context of state-building. Four recent books engage alternative themes—resistance and suffering or flexibility and adaptation—that characterized this deconstruction and reinvention. Indigenization of Christianity involved violence and struggle, while other Chinese religions tacitly conformed to the new norms of the modern state.
Focusing on the Manchuria Mission that was founded by the MEP in the height of nineteenth-century... more Focusing on the Manchuria Mission that was founded by the MEP in the height of nineteenth-century missionary expansion, In this chapter I analyze the Catechism and Regulations of the mission, as well as missionary statistical parish reports. Understanding how Christianity took root in an Asian context requires that we not only study the universality of the Christian message and the inclusiveness of the missionary effort, but also the mechanisms, institutions, actors, and processes that interpret the Christian message through specific language, behavior, and belief. In this paper I discuss how the MEP translated the catechism to introduce the concepts and rituals of Christian faith to the rural Chinese; how they designed the Regulation of the Mission to teach the catechism and to enforce Church discipline on missionaries, catechumen, and converts; and how they required systematic parish reports to measure and assess the success of local religious experience. This translation practice includes not only literal languages of French/Latin and Chinese but also numerical language that observes and measures the ‘faith’ of local converts. Such statistical assessments are often ignored in the history of evangelization. How often must a convert confess to become a “good” Christian? How many times must communion be conducted in a village to turn it into a “good” Christian community? MEP missionaries in northeast China had also to confront this translation from experience to explanations in the broader context of French Catholicism and French overseas Empire building.
The history of Christianity in China has become a very promising field in recent years. This pape... more The history of Christianity in China has become a very promising field in recent years. This paper uses the example of a recent study on the history of Catholicism in Manchuria and examines new trends in the study of Christianity in China. By focusing on different perspectives, new sources, theories and methodologies, this paper offers a reflection on the purpose of systematic exploration of church records. It further examines the means of analysis and interpretation of historical documents using interdisciplinary methods within a global perspective.
Faith, Gender, and Literacy: The Du Letters and Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Northeast China... more Faith, Gender, and Literacy: The Du Letters and Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Northeast China
19世纪中叶，天主教满洲宗座代牧区（Apostolic Vicariate of Manchuria）成立，由法国巴黎外方传教会管理。与中国其他具有天主教传统的地区不同，19世纪之前，涉足中国... more 19世纪中叶，天主教满洲宗座代牧区（Apostolic Vicariate of Manchuria）成立，由法国巴黎外方传教会管理。与中国其他具有天主教传统的地区不同，19世纪之前，涉足中国东北的天主教传教士极少，而东北的天主教徒则多为来自山东等地的天主教移民。19世纪欧洲天主教传教运动复兴，法国尤盛。在此大背景下，由法国传教士组成的巴黎外方传教会成为满洲代牧区建立和发展的主要推动力量。在其前辈传教士中国传教工作的基础上，这批19世纪的传教士具有新的特点。例如，他们并不认同早期耶稣会士的传教策略，他们致力于建立一套严格有序的教会制度、刻意强调天主教教义与仪式的严谨、以地方天主教移民家庭为中心建立天主教村落、广泛建立要理学房与天主教学校、关注女性教徒。在东北，许多天主教村落延续至今，与19世纪这批传教士的工作密切相关。本文基于笔者过去数年对巴黎外方传教会满洲代牧区档案文献的发掘、整理和解读，力图梳理19世纪天主教在东北地区的发展过程，并将此历史过程置于19世纪欧洲天主教复兴的历史背景之中。笔者还希望将文献的爬梳和文本解读，与新的史学分析方法相结合，探讨如何重新发掘和利用教会材料，进一步扩展“基督教在中国”这一主题的研究视野。
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Books by Ji Li
Through Caubrière’s experience, At the Frontier of God’s Empire examines Chinese people at social and cultural margins during this period. A wealth of primary sources, family letters, and visual depictions of village scenes illuminate vital issues in modern Chinese history, such as the transformation of local society, mass migration and religion, tensions between church and state, and the importance of cross-cultural exchanges in everyday life in Chinese Catholic communities. This intense transformation of Manchurian society embodies the clash of both domestic and international tensions in the making of modern China.
The letters were from three sisters of the Du family, who had taken religious vows and committed themselves to a life of contemplation and worship that allowed them rare privacy and the opportunity to learn to read and write. Inspired by a close reading of the letters, Ji Li explores how French Catholic missionaries of the MEP translated and disseminated their Christian message in northeast China from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, and how these converts interpreted and transformed their Catholic faith to articulate an awareness of self. The interplay of religious experience, rhetorical skill, and gender relations revealed in the letters allow us to reconstruct the neglected voices of Catholic women in rural China.
JI LI is research assistant professor of history at the University of Hong Kong.
"God's Little Daughters is an interesting historical study based on an examination of the documents of the MEP in Manchuria. These documents may arouse the curiosity and passion of the researcher."
-R. Po-chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City
"This work contributes to the study of women and gender in modern China, the expansion of literacy and educational access for women, and the role of the Catholic Church as it relates to these themes. It furthers our understanding of public and private spheres in China and the development of a new sense of privacy."
-Robert Entenmann, professor of history and Asian studies, St. Olaf College
Papers by Ji Li
and examines new trends in the study of Christianity in China. By focusing on different
perspectives, new sources, theories and methodologies, this paper offers a reflection on the purpose of systematic exploration of church records. It further examines the means of analysis and interpretation of historical documents using interdisciplinary methods within a global perspective.
本文以天主教杜氏书信为研究对象，考察十九世纪中晚期天主教如何进入中国本土社会，影响并改变普通中国教徒的信仰、情感及个体表达。在史学界对底层天主教徒，尤其是女教徒研究极为欠缺的今天，杜氏书信的发现为我们考察十九世纪天主教及教会教育提供了一份难得的原始文献。本文以杜氏书信为文本，着重分析中国乡村女教徒对天主教概念和词语的运用，以及宗教话语在其性别表达与身份认同中的作用。通过分析“宗教崇拜”和私人情感表达的借用与错位，揭示信仰通过宗教语言的方式在传授过程中被普通信众内化、挪用、再创造的过程。杜氏书信还体现了一种对教义文书的刻意模仿，信仰以宗教话语的形式成为女教徒书写与情感表达的工具。教义灌输也为她们形成和表达自己的宗教及性别身份提供了方式和途径。
Through Caubrière’s experience, At the Frontier of God’s Empire examines Chinese people at social and cultural margins during this period. A wealth of primary sources, family letters, and visual depictions of village scenes illuminate vital issues in modern Chinese history, such as the transformation of local society, mass migration and religion, tensions between church and state, and the importance of cross-cultural exchanges in everyday life in Chinese Catholic communities. This intense transformation of Manchurian society embodies the clash of both domestic and international tensions in the making of modern China.
The letters were from three sisters of the Du family, who had taken religious vows and committed themselves to a life of contemplation and worship that allowed them rare privacy and the opportunity to learn to read and write. Inspired by a close reading of the letters, Ji Li explores how French Catholic missionaries of the MEP translated and disseminated their Christian message in northeast China from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, and how these converts interpreted and transformed their Catholic faith to articulate an awareness of self. The interplay of religious experience, rhetorical skill, and gender relations revealed in the letters allow us to reconstruct the neglected voices of Catholic women in rural China.
JI LI is research assistant professor of history at the University of Hong Kong.
"God's Little Daughters is an interesting historical study based on an examination of the documents of the MEP in Manchuria. These documents may arouse the curiosity and passion of the researcher."
-R. Po-chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City
"This work contributes to the study of women and gender in modern China, the expansion of literacy and educational access for women, and the role of the Catholic Church as it relates to these themes. It furthers our understanding of public and private spheres in China and the development of a new sense of privacy."
-Robert Entenmann, professor of history and Asian studies, St. Olaf College
and examines new trends in the study of Christianity in China. By focusing on different
perspectives, new sources, theories and methodologies, this paper offers a reflection on the purpose of systematic exploration of church records. It further examines the means of analysis and interpretation of historical documents using interdisciplinary methods within a global perspective.
本文以天主教杜氏书信为研究对象，考察十九世纪中晚期天主教如何进入中国本土社会，影响并改变普通中国教徒的信仰、情感及个体表达。在史学界对底层天主教徒，尤其是女教徒研究极为欠缺的今天，杜氏书信的发现为我们考察十九世纪天主教及教会教育提供了一份难得的原始文献。本文以杜氏书信为文本，着重分析中国乡村女教徒对天主教概念和词语的运用，以及宗教话语在其性别表达与身份认同中的作用。通过分析“宗教崇拜”和私人情感表达的借用与错位，揭示信仰通过宗教语言的方式在传授过程中被普通信众内化、挪用、再创造的过程。杜氏书信还体现了一种对教义文书的刻意模仿，信仰以宗教话语的形式成为女教徒书写与情感表达的工具。教义灌输也为她们形成和表达自己的宗教及性别身份提供了方式和途径。