CHINESE CHRISTIAN VIRGINS AND CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES OF WOMEN IN NORTHEAST CHINA

Abstract

Based on archival research in France and China, this article examines Chinese Catholic virgins and the early history of Roman Catholic communities of women in northeast China. When foreign Catholic orders of women came into China in the second half of the nineteenth century, they introduced to China a new kind of organized religious life to women. However, not all Chinese Catholic women were willing to join the orders. There was apparently a tension between the Catholic Church's effort in institutionalization and the “traditional” Catholic lifestyle chosen by Chinese Catholic women, especially Chinese Christian virgins.