January 4, 2007

China Notes 19

In November, Wei Hong visited Yunnan Seminary in Kunming to consult about the needs of their library. Based on notes from her visit, we offer the following portrait of the seminary as a mini-portrait of one slice of church life in China.

Because of its many mountains and river valleys, Yunnan is an unusually beautiful province. However, these same mountains also make Yunnan one of the poorest provinces in China because there is relatively little arable land. Yunnan is also China’s most ethnically diverse province, with more than 20 different ethnic minorities.

Yunnan Seminary was one of the last seminaries in China to re-open after the Cultural Revolution. Through the 1980s, some felt that there was no need for a seminary in Yunnan because the seminary in the neighboring province of Sichuan already trained church workers for Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. However, Yunnan church leaders felt that Yunnan’s large ethnic minority population called for a seminary focusing primarily on the needs of people from non-Han Chinese backgrounds. Eventually Yunnan Minority Seminary (now called Yunnan Seminary) was approved, and opened in 1989 in the teaching building of an old elementary school in the provincial capital of Kunming. Since that time, seven classes (354 students) have graduated.

At present the seminary offers a three-year program. A new class of 30 students is enrolled each year, so about 90 students are enrolled at any given time, the maximum the facilities will accommodate. During the program, students are required to take about 32 different courses. The first-year program consists mainly of foundational courses, such as introductions to the Old and New Testaments, the life of Jesus, the history of Israel, and Bible geography; students also take core courses required of all higher education programs in China, such as Chinese, history, politics, and English.

The second-year program emphasizes in-depth study of Bible books such as Jeremiah, the Gospel of John, Romans, and First and Second Corinthians; courses in exegesis and church history are also taken in the second year. Third-year courses include systematic theology, ethics, history of Christian thought, and church management. Also offered during the program are courses in preaching, philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, and pastoral psychology. Additionally, students are required to read through the entire Bible, aloud, at least once.

The seminary’s primary mission is to train pastors for rural churches in Yunnan, particularly for ethnic minority areas. Currently there are students from Miao, Yi, Lisu, Jingpo, Hani, Bulang, Nu, Bai, Lahu, and Wa backgrounds, as well as Han Chinese, and over the years virtually all of Yunnan’s ethnic minority groups have been represented in the student body.

The seminary’s schedule is begins at 6:00 when students arise to go running before breakfast. After breakfast, morning devotions are held, followed by one hour of Bible reading. There are three class periods in the remainder of the morning, and four more in the afternoon. In the evenings, students have one hour of required study in their classrooms. Then, at 9:00, the students and faculty gather for 45 minutes of kneeling prayer. The day finally ends with lights out at 10:30. During vacations, students return to their home areas to serve in their churches, and after returning to the seminary, students write reports about their church service experiences.

Students need to pay 500 RMB a semester (about $62.50) to cover room and board. (The seminary does not charge tuition.) However, many students can’t afford even this, so the seminary also relies heavily on local Christians to contribute food for the students.

Because most students are from ethnic minority backgrounds, one problem some students face is weak skills in Chinese, the national language. (Given that the students and faculty come from so many backgrounds, Chinese is used as the medium of instruction because it is the only language all have in common.) In particular, some students find it difficult to learn to write well in Chinese. Another problem for some students is difficulty with more academic courses such as philosophy and psychology, which are sometimes rather abstract and distant from students’ pre-seminary lives. While approximately one third of the students have a senior middle school education level, another two thirds have only completed junior middle school before entering the seminary.

The seminary has nine full-time and several part-time teachers. Some of the full-time teachers are graduates of Jinling Seminary in Nanjing or Sichuan Seminary in Chengdu; others are graduates of Yunnan Seminary itself. (Several teachers are currently taking part-time distance education courses in religious studies programs from Beijing University or People’s University in Beijing.) Most faculty are from ethnic minority backgrounds, and the current staff includes teachers from the Lisu, Nu, Yi, Hani, Naxi, and Miao nationalities, as well as Han Chinese.

Because facilities are limited, many students live together in each dormitory room. Smaller dormitory rooms accommodate eight or nine students; and one larger dorm room holds from ten to twenty. Until recently, faculty lived in the rooms that, during the day, doubled as their offices, but since last year faculty have had rented quarters near the seminary.

The seminary library has about 6,000 volumes, mainly dealing with Christianity or China’s minority groups. Most of these books were donated, as there is relatively little money available for book purchases. (Last year the seminary received money from the national China Christian Council for book purchases, but this was a one-time grant and it may not be possible to rely on this every year.)

The library itself consists of one room with a number of book cases. (The book cases were purchased second-hand, so the shelves tend to collapse.) There is one computer, but no Internet access. Since 2005, the library has had a full-time staff person. While not a trained librarian, she has made good progress in ordering the library collection and making sure the books are well taken care of.

The seminary will soon move to a new location because the local government needs to reclaim the present site in order to widen the adjoining road. The seminary will be given a new piece of land and some funds toward the construction of a new facility, which can be designed from the beginning as a seminary (unlike the present building). However, the seminary will need to rent temporary quarters for approximately two years while a new seminary is being built, and will also need to raise more funds for the construction of a new seminary facility.

Let us take this opportunity to wish you all a belated but blessed and joyful Christmas and New Year’s. We continue to ask for your prayers and support, both for ourselves and for the church here in China.

God’s peace to you all,

Don and Wei Hong