The Shouters, or more properly the Shouters sect (呼喊派), is a label attached by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to an amorphous group within China that was targeted by the government first as counterrevolutionaries and subsequently as a criminal cult after incidents in Dongyang and Yiwu counties in Zhejiang province in February 1982. "The Shouters sect" became the object of waves of arrests in 1983 and again in 1995. Several 1983 publications with ties to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) accused the late expatriate Chinese Christian teacher Witness Lee (Li Changshou) of being the leader of "the Shouters sect" and of instigating the disorders. In practice, however, the appellation "the Shouters sect" has been applied far more broadly to many groups that pray openly and audibly and/or do not register or otherwise cooperate with the TSPM. There is considerable reason to doubt the veracity of the reports which led to the condemnation of "the Shouters sect" and the association of them with Witness Lee or the local churches, and the local churches distance themselves from the Shouters...
Background During the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, all public practice of religion in the People's Republic of China was suppressed as part of the attempt to eliminate the "Four Olds"—"old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas."Ryan Dunch, "Protestants and the State in Post-Mao China" (M. A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991), 12.Arne Sovik, "The Three-Self Documents – a Revaluation," in LWF Marxism and China Study, Document No. 4.1.2.0/01, Nordic Consultation on China, Aarhus, Denmark, Paper No. 1: Conference Report, May 29–31, 1972:3. Red Guard brigades assailed Christians in various parts of China.David H. Adeney, China: Christian Students Face the Revolution (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 126. Religion was condemned as a corrupting factor in Chinese society, and many Christians were sent to labor camps and subjected to "re-education."Jason Kindopp, "Fragmented Yet Defiant: Protestant Resilience under Chinese Communist Party Rule," God and Caesar in China: s of CPolicy Implicationhurch-State Tensions, Jason Kindopp and Carol Lee Hamrin, eds. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004), 126. Religious books, including Bibles and Christian literature, were destroyed.G. Thompson Brown, Christianity in the People's Republic of China, rev. ed. (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1986), 124. From 1973 the Christian faith began to spread rapidly in some parts of China.Alan Hunter and Kim-Kwong Chan, Protestantism in Contemporary China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 68 Because the TSPM had itself been disbanded in 1966, this spread took place entirely underground, that is, without government interference. Many "house churches" sprang up, as well as many home meetings associated with local churches organized along the lines of the teachings of Watchman Nee.Britt Towery, Christianity in Today's China (The Tao Foundation Missionary Heritage Edition, 2000).Leslie T. Lyall, New Spring in China (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1980).Tony Lambert, The Resurrection of the Chinese Church (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, 1994). However, in the absence of Bibles and other Christian literature, parts of China, especially more rural areas, became breeding grounds for the development of novel belief systems mixing elements of Christianity with Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and local folk beliefs and practices."Problems in Henan: Reports from Itinerant Preachers," China and the Church Today 4:2 (1982):2-3.
Following the death of Mao Zedong and the defeat of the Gang of Four, Deng Xiaoping became the de facto leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and of the government of the PRC. In 1978 the Fifth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China adopted a new constitution, the third in the history of the PRC. As far back as the 1954 constitution, Article 88 guaranteed that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief." Nevertheless, after the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, the affirmation in Article 46 of the new constitution that "citizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism" led many to believe that a new era of religious freedom was dawning.. However, the PRC has historically regulated the practice of religion.Kim-Kwong Chan and Eric R. Carlson, Religious Freedom in China: Policy, Administration, and Regulation (Santa Barbara, CA: Institute for the Study of American Religion, 2005).Christopher Marsh, Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival (New York: Continuum, 2011).Yihua Xu, "'Patriotic' Protestants: The Making of an Official Church," God and Caesar in China, Kindopp and Hamrin, eds., 107-121.
The TSPM and the PRC's regulation of religion In 1950 Zhou Enlai worked with Y. T. Wu to craft "The Christian Manifesto" declaring that Protestants in China would support the new government and reject foreign imperialism. Such initiatives led to the establishment of the TSPM which promoted the "three-self principles" of self-government, self-support, and self-propagation. Shortly afterwards a widespread accusation/denouncement campaign began which led to the expulsion of foreign missionaries and to the arrest and imprisonment of many indigenous Chinese Christians as counterrevolutionaries, including prominent Christian teachers such as Watchman Nee and Wang Mingdao.Lyall, Leslie (1977), "The Chinese Christian Church under Communism—1949–1966", in Aikman, David, Love China Today, Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 53.Bob Whyte, Unfinished Encounter: China and Christianity (London, Fount Paperbacks, 1988), 219–28. The CCP had a deep mistrust of any leader or movement with a significant following, including religious ones, partly due to the prominent place of the religiously motivated Taiping Rebellion in China's relatively recent past.Michael Dillon, Religious Minorities and China (London: Minority Rights Group International, 2001), 23.Tony Lambert, "The Present Religious Policy of the Chinese Communist Party," Religion, State & Society 29:2, 2001:121. The CCP itself had first gained traction in China by mobilizing small groups of peasants in rural areas and had grown in strength until it was able to topple the Kuomintang from power.
The TSPM was disbanded in 1966, near the outset of the Cultural Revolution. When the TSPM was reinstituted in 1979, its influence was initially confined to major metropolitan areas such as Beijing and Shanghai,David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1985), 167–68. whereas the rapid proliferation of the Christian faith was in provinces such as Henan, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Anhui.Hunter and Chan, Protestantism, 67–68.Lyall 1985, 172 Many Christians in China viewed the TSPM with suspicion because in its earlier incarnation in the 1950s, the TSPM had promoted modernist theology and had collaborated with the CCP to repress and persecute more biblical teachers. These Christians saw the reestablishment of the TSPM in 1979 as the government's attempt to reassert control over them and to slow the spread of the Christian gospel.Lyall 1985, 169–70Arne Sovik, China Notes VII:2, 1979:65.
Development In 1962, Witness Lee (an acolyte of Watchman Nee) moved from Taiwan to the United States and founded Living Stream Ministry. Witness Lee sought to expand the Local Church movement internationally.
In the late 1970s, teachings and practices advocated by Witness Lee and his followers entered China. These practices included congregation members exclaiming "Lord!" "Amen!" and "Halleluiah!" during services. Critics of these congregations began describing them as "The Shouters", intending the term with a negative connotation. The Chinese government and the Three-Self churches are among these critics.
Over time, the Shouters developed offshoot or splinter groups, such as Established King and Eastern Lightning.
Dongyang/Yiwu incidents In February 1982 conflicts broke out between Christians in Dongyang and Yiwu counties in Zhejiang province and representatives of the TSPM and the Public Security Bureau. The first report of these events outside of China appeared in a magazine called The Lord in China. In its inaugural issue it printed the full text of a mimeographed prayer letter dated April 3, 1982, which had circulated in central and south China after the incident at Dongyang.. It stated that on February 14–16, two representatives of the TSPM had visited Dongyang to set up a TSPM chapter there. However, thousands of Christians of multiple affiliations did not agree and held a three-day open air prayer meeting in front of the place where the TSPM representatives were conducting meetings. Then on February 28 TSPM representatives instigated a group of commune members to conduct a surprise raid on one of the Christian meeting places in Dongyang. Some of the Christians were beaten or had lime thrown in their eyes. According to the circular letter, a similar raid occurred in Yiwu county, the main difference being that TSPM personnel instructed Public Security Bureau members to disrupt a meeting, which they did, using electric batons.
This report was also picked up by the Chinese Church Research Centre (CCRC), a Christian China watching organization based in Hong Kong. Part of the circular prayer letter was translated and printed in the June 1982 issue of the China Prayer Letter.Chinese Christian Research Centre (CCRC), China Prayer Letter, June 1982. The prayer letter was also mentioned in the June 1982 issue of The People, a Chinese magazine also based in Hong Kong.Huang Ya-keh, "The Clash between Religious Freedom and Political Persecution," The People 25, June 1, 1982. Huang's article cited The Lord in China as a source. The CCRC reprinted the circular letter in the July/August 1982 issue of China and the Church Today."Persecution in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province; translation of an internal circular issued by house churches in central China." China and the Church Today, July/August 1982: 3-4. The July 1982 issue of CCRC News reported that Meanwhile, another group representing various mainline Christian constituencies, the Ecumenical China Study Liaison Group (ECSLG), had been pursuing a policy of rapprochement and collaboration with the TSPM. The group included the Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, Hong Kong Christian Council, Lutheran World Federation, China Study Project (Anglican), and Pro Mundi Vita (Roman Catholic), among others. Participants included Philip Wickeri, Edmond Tang, Arne Sovik, and Bob Whyte. The members of this group published several periodicals, including Bridge, Religion in the People's Republic of China, and Ching Feng, which reprinted TSPM documents and statements and generally followed an editorial policy sympathetic to the TSPM's viewpoint.