Canaan Hymns

Canaan Hymns or Songs of Canaan (Chinese: 迦南诗选; pinyin: Jiānán Shīxuǎn[1][2]) is a collection of Chinese hymns composed by Lü Xiaomin, a Christian convert peasant woman with no musical education, beginning in 1990. Lü's theological background is in Pentecostalism and the local churches movement, and the hymns reflect themes of Christology, pneumatology and eschatology against the backdrop of Chinese political realities.

Canaan Hymns
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese迦南詩選
Simplified Chinese迦南诗选
ReleasedContinuous since 1990
No. of Hymns1,810 as of July 2017

Canaan hymns are one of the most successful underground Christian publication in China. They are used by many Protestant churches in the country. Both Chinese house churches and churches of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement use them, despite the latter having criticized the hymns through its official channels. The Chinese government has targeted censorship efforts on the distributors of the hymnal. Overseas Chinese communities and Taiwanese churches use the hymnal, too.

Even people with little education can learn the hymns, which are short and musically simple, usually rhymed, and resemble Chinese folk songs. This has contributed to their popularity. The hymns can also be sung without instruments. Their Chinese elements and Confucian undertones make them more acceptable than foreign hymnals to Chinese worshipers. There is a strong emphasis on the communal aspects of the Christian church. Some hymns are patriotic.

History

The hymns are composed by Lü Xiaomin, a daughter of peasants of the Hui minority born in 1970,[3] who converted to Christianity.[4] She started composing the hymns in 1990.[4][5] As of July 2017, there are 1,810 Canaan hymns.[6]

Use

The songs are extremely popular all over China.[7][8] They are used by many Protestant Chinese churches, both in the People's Republic of China and in Taiwan and have been published in both countries. Overseas Chinese communities use them as well.[9]

Canaan hymns are one of the most successful underground Christian publication in China.[2] They are predominantly used in the Chinese house churches, where they are considered its "official hymnal". They also see use in the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches.[10] Through its official channels, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement has criticized the hymns. A 1999 issue of its Tian Feng magazine scrutinized the hymn 195, "Lord, Have Mercy on China, Hold Back Your Anger", in particular for questioning the Movement's view of Christianity in service of Chinese socialism.[11] The government has targeted publishers and distributors of the hymnal.[2]

Neither Lü nor anyone in her family has any formal musical training.[12] She does not know how to write either Western or Chinese musical notation.[13] Initially, her hymns spread mainly orally, but they have since begun to be transcribed by others.[14] Orchestral adaptations of the hymns have made Lü famous overseas as well.[4] Her life story and the hymns are inseparable in publicity, reflecting a holiness theology on part of the movement.[7] Described as "profoundly modest" despite her fame in China, Lü spends much time traveling around the country.[15] Her music is publicized by Chinese American backers in particular.[7]

The 2012 Chinese film Back to 1942 featured the Canaan hymn "The River of Life" as its theme song. The hymn "I Love My Home" has also appeared on China Central Television,[16][17] sung by a Christian family,[16] despite the channel's reputation as propaganda of the officially atheist state.[18]

Many Chinese regard the Canaan hymns a gift from God.[14] Chinese Christians have attributed miraculous healings to those singing the hymns.[11]

Musical and theological features

My Lord leads me into His gates
Our loving words flow endlessly
Our love is as strong as death
Many waters cannot quench it
My Lord is radiant
Outstanding among all others
I am His and He is mine
We will never part
He takes me to the fields
He takes me to the vineyards
He feeds His flock among the lilies
I am with Him forever

"The Lord and I" (Canaan hymn 85)[19]

The Canaan hymns are short,[9] pentatonic and resemble Chinese folk songs.[20] Many, but not all, are rhymed. Few have verses or refrains. There are many allusions to nature and the weather.[21] They are "genuinely inculturated hymns, with a folk lilt, Chinese harmonics, and an imagery that blends rural China with biblical themes".[4] The spontaneity of the hymns reflect the process that Lü uses to compose her hymns: she develops songs based on Bible verses that come to her mind while praying, as a plea to a local need or as thanks.[21] Conceiving a new hymn can take as little as five to ten minutes.[14] The songs are simple, "a few lines of doxology or lament";[21] the figures of speech used are everyday and rural.[22] The songs are easier to learn than those featured in the Chinese New Hymnal, the official hymnal of the state-controlled China Christian Council. Even uneducated and illiterate people can grasp the Canaan hymns, which has contributed to their popularity.[9] They can be sung without instrumentation,[23] and are sung in church, at home gatherings, and when alone.[9]

The songs are Christologically and pneumatologically focused, even if most of the Biblical references are to the Old Testament, especially the Book of Psalms.[22] The lyrics of the hymns are theologically mindful of a tension between China's political realities and aspirations of Chinese Christians. These thoughts are reflected on the Second Coming of Jesus and there is a strong eschatological current.[24] Early hymns in particular focused on the theme of overcoming hardships.[21] The hymnody reflects a kind of "enduring acceptance of state persecution."[7]

Their Chinese elements and Confucian undertones make them more acceptable than foreign hymnals to Chinese audiences.[20] There is a strong emphasis on the communal aspects of the Christian church. Some hymns, such as "Chinese Heart" and "The Chinese shall Rise", are markedly patriotic.[25] Canaan hymns also exhibit the "Three self principles" that are central to Chinese Protestantism, "self-governance, self-reliance, and self-propagation", often supplemented with a fourth one: "ingeniousness".[26] These aspects make Canaan hymns compatible with government-sanctioned Christianity.[22] Some have the air of work songs,[27] and even contain mimicry of Cultural Revolution era propaganda songs.[24]

See also

References

Notes
  1. Starr 2016, p. 28.
  2. Zhou 2011, p. 156.
  3. Aikman 2012, p. 143.
  4. Starr 2016, p. 356.
  5. The Canaan Hymns 2003, 14:00.
  6. Wang 2017.
  7. Starr 2016, p. 355.
  8. Aikman 2012, p. 112.
  9. Strandenæs 2008, p. 156.
  10. Neeley 2016, p. 591.
  11. Aikman 2012, p. 110.
  12. Aikman 2012, p. 109.
  13. Wang 2015.
  14. Hawn 2015, p. 2665.
  15. Aikman 2012, p. 111.
  16. The Canaan Hymns 2003, 44:00.
  17. Golf 2013, p. 164.
  18. Golf 2013, pp. 28, 163.
  19. The Canaan Hymns 2003, 39:00.
  20. Neeley 2016, pp. 591–592.
  21. Starr 2016, p. 357.
  22. Starr 2016, p. 358.
  23. The Canaan Hymns 2003, 4:00.
  24. Starr 2016, p. 359.
  25. Strandenæs 2008, pp. 157–158.
  26. Strandenæs 2008, p. 158.
  27. Starr 2016, pp. 357–358.

Works cited
  • Aikman, David (2012). Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power. Washington: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59698-652-7.
  • "The Canaan Hymns". The Cross: Jesus in China (DVD). Episode 4. China Soul. 2003. OCLC 56714083.
  • Golf, Paul (2013). The Coming Chinese Church: How Rising Faith in China is Spilling Over Its Boundaries. Oxford: Monarch Books. ISBN 978-0-85721-331-0.
  • Hawn, C. Michael (2015). "Landscapes and Soudscapes: How Place Shapes Christian Congregational Song". In Brunn, Stanley D. (ed.). The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices and Politics. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 978-94-017-9376-6.
  • Neeley, Paul L. (2016). "Canaan Hymns". In Scorgie, Glen G. (ed.). Dictionary of Christian Spirituality. Zondervan. pp. 591–592. ISBN 978-0-310-53103-6.
  • Starr, Chloë (2016). Chinese Theology: Text and Context. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-22493-1.
  • Strandenæs, Thor (2008). "The Never Ending Song: The Contextualization of Chinese Christian Hymnody". In Engelsviken, Tormod; Harbakk, Ernst; Olsen, Rolv; Strandenæs, Thor (eds.). Mission to the World: Communicating the Gospel in the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of Knud Jorgensen. Oxford: Regnum. pp. 146–160. ISBN 978-1-870345-64-4.
  • Wang, Ruth (15 December 2015). "You Are the Light of the World, Song for Preachers, Created by China's Songbird, Lv Xiaomin". China Christian Daily. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
  • Wang, Ruth (25 July 2017). "Hymn Writer Xiao Min Writes New Song to Honor Two Chinese Preachers Killed in Pakistan". China Christian Daily. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  • Zhou, Kate (2011). China's Long March to Freedom: Grassroots Modernization. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4128-1520-8.

Further reading
  • Balcombe, Dennis (2014). China's Opening Door: Incredible Stories of the Holy Spirit at Work in One of the Greatest Revivals in Christianity. Lake Mary: Charisma Media. ISBN 978-1-62136-572-3.
  • Jianan shi xuan 迦南诗选 [Canaan Hymnal] (in Chinese) (Second ed.). Taipei: Hosanna Gospel Propaganda Association. 2001. ISBN 9579642559.
  • Sun, Irene Ai-Ling (2007). "Songs of Canaan: Hymnody of the House-Church Christians in China". Studia Liturgica. 37 (1): 98–116. ISSN 0039-3207.
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