The Challenge of Diversity: Evangelical Missionaries and Ethno-Christianity in Reform Era Yunnan

Since the beginning of the reform era, China has witnessed a resurgence of a large variety of religious practices and a particularly significant expansion of Protestant Christianity. Much of the growth of Christianity can be ascribed to the efforts of indigenous Chinese churches. However, the dissemination of Christianity is also being promoted by a non-Chinese, primarily Western missionary community. Missionary presence is particularly considerable in the peripheral province of Yunnan, in the far southwestern corner of China. Missionaries were active in Yunnan before the 1949 revolution, where they had considerable success with a number of minority peoples. After being kicked out in the 1950s, missionaries have began returning to China in large numbers since the 1990s. Despite the illegality of proselytizing in today's China, foreign Christian workers are largely tolerated in Yunnan province. Both foreign and Chinese Missionaries working among minority people in Yunnan are faced with the challenge of dealing with a wide variety of religious, cultural and ethnic traditions among potential converts.