Christian Faith in Bing Xin’s Early Life: Tradition and Western Values in the Early 20th Century China

Abstract

Among Chinese writers of the 20th century, Xie Wanying 谢婉莹 (1900–1999), known with her pen name Bing Xin 冰心, has been considered by literary critics as “the writer of love” and “the philosopher of love”. Nevertheless, this label seems to have ignored an element that could let us identify important conflicts within her works, that can be attributed to her contacts and relations with people and institutions linked to the Christian faith. Therefore, in the first period of Bing Xin’s literary production (1920–1930), this peculiar aspect of Western culture, the Christian belief, seems to be for her the expression of a definitely alternative and unconventional way to achieve truth in the early 20th century China.

Keywords

• Bing Xin 冰心
• Western culture
• Christian religion
• tradition
• poetry