Wang Zhiming

Wang Zhiming (* Changchong (Changchondian) / Yunnan 1907 or 1908 ; † December 29, 1973 ) was a Chinese pastor of the Protestant denomination from Wuding in Yunnan, who was martyred in the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) . In the western world he became known because he was named one of the ten martyrs of the 20th century in 1998 . next to Maximilian Kolbe , Martin Luther King , Dietrich Bonhoeffer , Óscar Romero u. a. pictured above the west portal of Westminster Abbey .

Wang Zhiming as one of the martyrs of the 20th century. on the west facade of Westminster Abbey (far right)

Life

origin

Wang Zhiming was born to a Miao minority in Wuding District, southern China's Yunnan Province ; Wuding is located north of the provincial capital Kunming , where in the vicinity of today's neighboring states Myanmar-Burma , Thailand , Laos and Vietnam in the south and south-west numerous linguistic and ethnic minorities, so-called hill tribes , live mainly from dry rice cultivation in mountain and jungle regions that are difficult to access . Here, the British had since 1906 Methodists - missionary Sam Pollard as part of the Inland Mission China a writing system for the Miao language developed; the Australian physician Arthur G. Nicholls supported him, the British missionary and linguist George E. Metcalf translated the Bible into the dialect of some mountain peoples ( Miao / Hmong , Lisu ) using this writing system , as did the Australian missionary Gladstone Porteous , who translated it into the Language that transmitted Yi . The linguistic and missionary efforts of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries among the largely animistic and only superficially Sinic mountain peoples of Southeast Asia were so successful that in 1944, when Porteous died, 20,000 Miao and Yi were Protestant Christians, in 1949 130,000, i.e. H. a total of 20% of Christians in China.

Education and career

Wang Zhiming attended the mission school and then taught another school for ten years. In 1944 he was elected chairman of the church council of Wuding as the successor to the outgoing Nicholls. After attending the seminary in Kunming in 1951, at the age of 44, he was ordained pastor. In the 1950s, Wang was one of the six Christian Miao leaders who, after a communist training course and a visit to Mao Zedong in Beijing, signed the requirements of the new communist leadership in the Protestant ecclesiastical area, the so-called " Three Self Manifesto " : the principle of self-administration, self-preservation (no financial help from abroad) and self-missioning (no foreign missionaries). However, even before the Cultural Revolution, Wang refused to participate in public degradation of landowners, which earned him the reputation of a counter-revolutionary .

Cultural Revolution, execution

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), the Christian Miao leaders were arrested in Wuding and sent to camps, where they were beaten and tortured. Wang was also taken into custody with his son and wife in 1969; a former pastor, Elder Long, who had turned into an atheist and supporter of the Cultural Revolution, became his fiercest persecutor; After four years in prison, Wang Zhiming was sentenced to death in 1973 in the Wuding Sports Stadium after a four-day show trial in front of more than 10,000 people and then shot in front of everyone . This was followed by riots, especially the women insulting the elder Long who was present, and the whole stadium was in an uproar. This also broke with the traditional policy of the communist central government of granting minorities certain special rights for reasons of state (e.g. exceptions to the one-child policy, etc.); Since the Miao, like other "mountain peoples", settle across borders, the already unstable loyalty of this population group to China was in danger. a. in the final phase of the Vietnam War .

Rehabilitation, aftermath

Wang's family received compensation after the Cultural Revolution in 1980 and he himself was rehabilitated; In the mid-1990s, the Changchong authorities even put up an honoring plaque. While there were only 2,795 Christians in the Wuding district when Wang died, there were already 12,000 in 1980 and today (2011) - despite occasional anti-Christian attacks - 60,000. Two of Wang's sons, Wang Zisheng and Wang Zhonglin, also became pastors after their father died.

Miao Wang was accepted as one of the ten martyrs of the 20th century as the representative of Asia on the west portal of Westminster Abbey in 1998 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hattaway, Martyrs S. 549
2. ↑ Today OMF Overseas Missionary Fellowship.
3. ↑ Half of all Christians in Yunnan lived in the vicinity of Wuding in the 1950s; Gladstone Porteous
4. ^ Three-Self Patriotic Movement; according to Hattaway, Martyrs, it was Wang Zhiming's son, Wang Zisheng, who was accused of collaborating with the "three-selves movement" (p. 550).
5. ↑ Hattaway, Martyrs, S. 550th

literature

• Andrew Chandler. Gerald Bray: The terrible alternative. Christian Martyrs in the twentieth century . London: Cassell 1998. - Review in: Sobornost 22 (2000), pp. 66-67.
• Joakim Enwall: A myth becomes reality. History and development of the Miao written language . 2 Vols. Stockholm 1995. (Stockholm East Asian Monographs Vol. 5 and 6). - At the same time Univ.Diss. Stockholm 1995.
• Paul Hattaway: Operation China. Introducing all the peoples of China . Carlisle: Piquant 2000.
• Paul Hattaway: China's book of martyrs . Carlisle: Piquant 2007. pp. 549-550.
• Rukang Tian: Peaks of Faith. Protestant mission in the Republic of China . Suffer. New York. Cologne: Brill 1993.