{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109539"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109539","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Changing the image: the presentation of Christianity in Yu Guan and Deep River","abstract":"This paper investigates and compares the presentation of Christianity in two novels by Chinese writer Xu Dishan (1893-1941) and Japanese writer Endo Shusaku (1923-1996), Yu Guan and Deep River. As a religion brought by Western missionaries, Christianity is considered “foreign” in both writers’ contexts and is not welcomed. As the two writers in the discussion are both affiliated with Christianity and are supportive of its existence in their countries, they both encounter the problem of justifying Christianity in their home cultures. Furthermore, while the two authors write the two novels in different contexts (China in the 1920s and Japan in the postwar period), they both experience a critical period of modernization in their countries. Such experiences also bring challenges to the existence of Christianity in China and Japan. Instead of studying how these two writers are influenced by Christianity, this paper argues for their subjectivity in defining Christianity by investigating how they present it in their works. The two main questions the two authors deal with in the works are the xenophobic attitude toward Christianity in their home cultures and Christianity’s relationship with modernization. The two authors tackle the questions through their active redefinition of Christianity in their cultural contexts. While Xu Dishan is more aggressive in defying foreign authority and the influence of modernization, Endo Shusaku approaches these questions in subtler ways, seeking a Christianity outside of European authority on Christianity that can co-exist with modernity.","abstract_html":"This paper investigates and compares the presentation of Christianity in two novels by Chinese writer Xu Dishan (1893-1941) and Japanese writer Endo Shusaku (1923-1996), Yu Guan and Deep River. As a religion brought by Western missionaries, Christianity is considered “foreign” in both writers’ contexts and is not welcomed. As the two writers in the discussion are both affiliated with Christianity and are supportive of its existence in their countries, they both encounter the problem of justifying Christianity in their home cultures. Furthermore, while the two authors write the two novels in different contexts (China in the 1920s and Japan in the postwar period), they both experience a critical period of modernization in their countries. Such experiences also bring challenges to the existence of Christianity in China and Japan. Instead of studying how these two writers are influenced by Christianity, this paper argues for their subjectivity in defining Christianity by investigating how they present it in their works. The two main questions the two authors deal with in the works are the xenophobic attitude toward Christianity in their home cultures and Christianity’s relationship with modernization. The two authors tackle the questions through their active redefinition of Christianity in their cultural contexts. While Xu Dishan is more aggressive in defying foreign authority and the influence of modernization, Endo Shusaku approaches these questions in subtler ways, seeking a Christianity outside of European authority on Christianity that can co-exist with modernity.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Zeng, Hanyun"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"E Asian Languages & Cultures","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Tierney, Robert T"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-03-05T21:42:53Z","date_published":"2021-03-05T21:42:53Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:50Z","subjects":["Christianity","Yu Guan","Deep River","Xu Dishan","Endo Shusaku","Chinese Literature","Japanese Literature"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Hanyun Zeng"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109539","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Tierney, Robert T"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Zeng, Hanyun"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021-03-05T21:42:53Z","2023-03-05T21:43:00Z","2020-12-09","2020-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["E Asian Languages & Cultures"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Christianity","Yu Guan","Deep River","Xu Dishan","Endo Shusaku","Chinese Literature","Japanese Literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Hanyun Zeng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109539"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This paper investigates and compares the presentation of Christianity in two novels by Chinese writer Xu Dishan (1893-1941) and Japanese writer Endo Shusaku (1923-1996), Yu Guan and Deep River. As a religion brought by Western missionaries, Christianity is considered “foreign” in both writers’ contexts and is not welcomed. As the two writers in the discussion are both affiliated with Christianity and are supportive of its existence in their countries, they both encounter the problem of justifying Christianity in their home cultures. Furthermore, while the two authors write the two novels in different contexts (China in the 1920s and Japan in the postwar period), they both experience a critical period of modernization in their countries. Such experiences also bring challenges to the existence of Christianity in China and Japan. Instead of studying how these two writers are influenced by Christianity, this paper argues for their subjectivity in defining Christianity by investigating how they present it in their works. The two main questions the two authors deal with in the works are the xenophobic attitude toward Christianity in their home cultures and Christianity’s relationship with modernization. The two authors tackle the questions through their active redefinition of Christianity in their cultural contexts. While Xu Dishan is more aggressive in defying foreign authority and the influence of modernization, Endo Shusaku approaches these questions in subtler ways, seeking a Christianity outside of European authority on Christianity that can co-exist with modernity.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2022-12-01","The student, Hanyun Zeng, accepted the attached license on 2020-12-09 at 14:30.","The student, Hanyun Zeng, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-12-09 at 14:41.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-12-09 at 16:50.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16106 on 2021-03-04 at 16:20:51","Made available in DSpace on 2021-03-05T21:42:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 ZENG-THESIS-2020.pdf: 510049 bytes, checksum: e286f818025e2dc30ef59005f7e753c4 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4208 bytes, checksum: 85599c1d20ee1b369dff48d6120e5c16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-12-09","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 117244 Lift date: 2023-03-05T21:43:00Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Changing the image: the presentation of Christianity in Yu Guan and Deep River"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Tierney, Robert T"],"dc:creator":["Zeng, Hanyun"],"dc:date":["2021-03-05T21:42:53Z","2023-03-05T21:43:00Z","2020-12-09","2020-12"],"dc:description":["This paper investigates and compares the presentation of Christianity in two novels by Chinese writer Xu Dishan (1893-1941) and Japanese writer Endo Shusaku (1923-1996), Yu Guan and Deep River. As a religion brought by Western missionaries, Christianity is considered “foreign” in both writers’ contexts and is not welcomed. As the two writers in the discussion are both affiliated with Christianity and are supportive of its existence in their countries, they both encounter the problem of justifying Christianity in their home cultures. Furthermore, while the two authors write the two novels in different contexts (China in the 1920s and Japan in the postwar period), they both experience a critical period of modernization in their countries. Such experiences also bring challenges to the existence of Christianity in China and Japan. Instead of studying how these two writers are influenced by Christianity, this paper argues for their subjectivity in defining Christianity by investigating how they present it in their works. The two main questions the two authors deal with in the works are the xenophobic attitude toward Christianity in their home cultures and Christianity’s relationship with modernization. The two authors tackle the questions through their active redefinition of Christianity in their cultural contexts. While Xu Dishan is more aggressive in defying foreign authority and the influence of modernization, Endo Shusaku approaches these questions in subtler ways, seeking a Christianity outside of European authority on Christianity that can co-exist with modernity.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2022-12-01","The student, Hanyun Zeng, accepted the attached license on 2020-12-09 at 14:30.","The student, Hanyun Zeng, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-12-09 at 14:41.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-12-09 at 16:50.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16106 on 2021-03-04 at 16:20:51","Made available in DSpace on 2021-03-05T21:42:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 ZENG-THESIS-2020.pdf: 510049 bytes, checksum: e286f818025e2dc30ef59005f7e753c4 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4208 bytes, checksum: 85599c1d20ee1b369dff48d6120e5c16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-12-09","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 117244 Lift date: 2023-03-05T21:43:00Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109539"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2020 Hanyun Zeng"],"dc:subject":["Christianity","Yu Guan","Deep River","Xu Dishan","Endo Shusaku","Chinese Literature","Japanese Literature"],"dc:title":["Changing the image: the presentation of Christianity in Yu Guan and Deep River"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["E Asian Languages & Cultures"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:50Z"}