The Three Lives of Deaconess Yang (1922–1932)

Abstract

Although patriarchal religion is often depicted as a reactionary influence in women’s lives, charismatic religious organizations like the True Jesus Church were part of a flourishing new associational culture in China during the 1920s and 1930s that expanded roles and multiplied life opportunities for Chinese women. Recent scholarship has highlighted ways in which elite women worked as lawyers, doctors, and educators, participated in modern print culture, and engaged in public conversations. The histories of women of the True Jesus Church move us closer to understanding the world of Chinese women at the grassroots in an era during which old and new ideals of womanhood seesawed back and forth. Participation in the True Jesus Church connected women to an organized, collective form of religious life that was strikingly modern and amplified their opportunities to wield spiritual and community authority.