The Localization Movement of the Christian Churches to Remove Their Flavor of Western Culture
Christianity was a religion to relieve ills of the world. The WorldMissionary Movement in the 19th century accompanying thecolonial expansion of the European and American countries hadenabled Christianity to forcibly enter the economicallyunderdeveloped countries in Asia and Africa. However，Christianity， which was pervaded with Western culture， also metwith cultural resistance by different ethnic groups in the courseof its dissemination. In China， uninterrupted missionary cases，the Yi He Tuan Movement and the Non-Christian Movementhad caused some foreign missionaries and Chinese Christianleaders to consider the profits and losses of the missionaryundertaking in terms of culture. An indisputable fact was that， inmany aspects， no matter in ideology， organization or etiquette，Christianity was incompatible with， and sometimes even clashedwith， the Chinese indigenous culture. Thus， cultural estrangement hindered the development of Christianity in China. Thus， it wasadvocated not only by the Chinese Christian leaders to localizeChristianity by neutralizing its Western coloring， but also by someforeign missionaries in the early times who had tried to explainChristianity with traditional Confucian ideology， but failedbecause the culture differences were too hard to overcome.
The World Missionary Convention held in Edinburgh in1900 was a turning point in that it concluded "the time had pastthat the different churches could operate and complete theirmissionary work independently‘， and the functions of churchesin different dioceses throughout the world should be highlightedto promote the localization movement. In 1913， John Mott， oneof the chief leaders of the Protestant International Organization，came to China to research the missionary plan. After visiting sixcities like Guangzhou， Shanghai， Jinan， Beijing， etc， he held theNational Conference of the Chinese Christian Churches inShanghai， which was attended by 120 church leaders. Accordingto the situation faced by the churches， the conference proposedthat it should urge the Chinese Christians to take on theresponsibility of preaching.
Mott came to Shanghai again in May 1922 to hold anothernational conference， this time attended by 1，200 representatives from more than 70 foreign missions， among whom half wereChinese clergy. The main theme was "the Chinese Churches‘。 Itfocused on specific Chinese problems such as preaching，education， publication， charity and women， etc， and put forwardthe proposition of "Localized Churches‘， believing that theprosperity of Chinese churches rested on "Integration andLocalization‘。 The conference approved the proposal to establisha National Christian Council of China， and appointed two ChineseChristians Yu Rizhang and Cheng Jingyi as president andsecretary general respectively. The council aimed at even morevigorous promotion of the localization movement. Although YuRizhang and Cheng Jingyi were both Chinese， the council stillcould not escape from the control of the foreign missions andmissionaries， and was just a union of different foreign missionsin China， with its chief directors of all committees being foreignmissionaries， while all the meetings were staged in English， andall reports， discussions and minutes were also in English. So， itwas obvious that the localization movement under the control ofthe foreign missionaries could only be a cosmetic move.
In the 1920s， facing various kinds of anti-religion ideologyin society， localization that should have been pushed ahead solelyby the Chinese themselves had become an imperative for Chinese Christianity. Since the 1920s， lots of Chinese Christianintellectuals such as Cheng Jingyi， Zhao Zichen， Wu Leichuan，etc， had begun to explore means of achieving localization. All ofthem had extensive knowledge about traditional Chinese cultureand held a rational view towards their belief in Christianity. Theywere keen on finding a way out from Christianity to save thecountry and were worried about the foreign coloring of theChinese Christian churches. They naturally became the activedriving force of the localization movement.
Cheng Jingyi， secretary general of the National ChristianCouncil of China， made some penetrating comments on thelocalization issue： "Localization of churches as advocated by thecouncil requires Chinese Christians to take on the responsibilityfor rejuvenating the innate essence of oriental civilization and toremove the bad reputation as a foreign religion burdened byChristianity.‘ There were two meanings to his words： first， ChineseChristians should be responsible to themselves， namely， theChinese churches should practice independence with ChineseChristians playing the key role; second， Chinese Christians shouldrejuvenate the inherent oriental civilization and absorb its essenceto neutralize the foreign flavor of Christianity and get it acrossto the Chinese people.
Among all the leaders of the Chinese Christian Churches，Zhao Zichen talked relatively more about localization than others.