Jesus on Chinese Soil -- The Chinese Sisters Until 1929 -- The Turbulent 1930s -- The War Years 1940s -- A New Chapter in Hong Kong's History -- The 1950s -- The 1960s -- A Decade of Revolutions -- 1971-1973 and Beyond.

This book traces the origins of the Chinese Sisters of the Precious Blood in Hong Kong and their history up to the early 1970s, and contributes to the neglected area of Chinese Catholic women in the history of the Chinese Catholic Church. It studies the growth of an indigenous community of Chinese sisters, who acquired a formal status in the local and universal Catholic Church, and the challenge of identifying Chinese Catholic women in studies dealing with the Chinese Church in the first half of the 20th century, as these women remained 'faceless' and 'nameless' in contrast to their Catholic male counterparts of the period. Emphasizing the intertwining histories of the Hong Kong Church, the churches in China, and the Roman Catholic Church, it demonstrates how the history of the Precious Blood Congregation throws light on the formation and development of indigenous groups of sisters in contemporary China.

Local access dig.pdf. [Chu-Chinese Sisters.pdf]

"Constructing Christ in iron : the Paris Foreign Mission Society and its architecture in the nineteenth century Singapore and Hong Kong" / Tan, Ian Y.H.

Published in the International Journal of Asian Christianity: Vol. 8 (2025): Iss. 2 : Special Issue: Asian Catholic Materials and Space

Abstract:
The Paris Foreign Mission Society (Missions étrangères de Paris, mep) was instrumental in the introduction of imported building materials like structural iron and steel in Singapore and Hong Kong during the late nineteenth century, particularly through the construction of its churches and printing house respectively. This article explores how the use of iron as a construction material, particularly those produced by French foundries, gave mep missions access and knowledge to pioneer the use of iron as a building material overseas in the context of their mission work in East Asia. This research focuses not only on the material’s ability to accentuate the liturgical qualities and missional zeal produced by these spaces, but also the agentic role of mep priests in transferring architectural trends and modern technology across colonial networks during its heyday. The mep’s decision to use iron based on its superiority over other local materials helped to mitigate challenging local environments such as the poor soil condition of the church building in Singapore and to fulfil the structural and functional needs of the printing house in Hong Kong. Yet as the archival research and on-site surveys show, such technology transfers were not frictionless. There were challenges in communications between constructors in France, and the priests and local contractors in Singapore and Hong Kong, relying on limited letter correspondences and inaccurate building plans, causing delays in realising the mission’s evangelical ambitions in Asia. This article also highlights constructers’ intention to exploit iron’s materiality and structural potential to build Gothic style churches that not only created worship experience that is profoundly spiritual and immersive, but also offered a new identity for the emerging Asian Catholic communities reflecting their aspirations for social mobility.

Preface - Introduction - The 1920s, People and Weather - The 1930s, Schools, Visitors, and Visits - Advent of Japanese, 1938-1941 - Japanese Occupation and Internment, 1941-1942 - In and Out of the Camp, Releases, and Repatriation, 1941-1942 - Postwar Years, the 1950s, the Early 1960s, and Refugees - Resettlement Areas in the 1950s and the 1960s - Conclusion