China Gothic : the bishop of Beijing and his cathedral / Anthony E. Clark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clark, Anthony E., author.

Contributor:

Roth, Leland M., writer of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Favier, Alphonse, 1837-1905.

Favier, Alphonse.

Catholic Church--Missions--China--Beijing--History.

Catholic Church.

Catholic Church--China--Bishops--Biography.

Xishiku Cathedral (Beijing, China).

Gothic revival (Architecture)--China--Beijing.

Gothic revival (Architecture).

Architecture, French--China--Beijing.

Architecture, French.

Nationalism and architecture--China--Beijing.

Nationalism and architecture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2019]

Summary:

As China struggled to redefine itself at the turn of the twentieth century, nationalism, religion, and material culture intertwined in revealing ways. This phenomenon is evident in the twin biographies of North China's leading Catholic bishop of the time, Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), and the Beitang cathedral, epicenter of the Roman Catholic mission in China through incarnations that began in 1701. After its relocation and reconstruction under Favier's supervision, the cathedral-and Favier-miraculously survived a two-month siege in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. Featuring a French Gothic Revival design augmented by Chinese dragon-shaped gargoyles, marble balustrades in the style of Daoist and Buddhist temples, and other Chinese aesthetic flourishes, Beitang remains an icon of Sino-Western interaction. Anthony Clark draws on archival materials from the Vatican and collections in France, Italy, China, Poland, and the United States to trace the prominent role of French architecture in introducing Western culture and Catholicism to China. A principal device was the aesthetic imagined by the Gothic Revival movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the premier example of this in China being the Beitang cathedral. Bishop Favier's biography is a lens through which to examine Western missionaries' role in colonial endeavors and their complex relationship with the Chinese communities in which they lived and worked.

Contents:

The civilizing mission : a French church on Chinese soil

The fruits of diplomacy : building a genteel empire

Competing shadows : Beijing's first North Church

China Gothic : Alphonse Favier's North Church

The contours of reconstruction : Favier and the French mission.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780295746685

0295746688

OCLC:

1098219079