The woman who showed way to China for American evangelists

Historically, Chinese society has been characterised by tolerant, live-and-let-live attitudes firmly anchored in this world, much at variance with Christianity’s sour view of life on Earth as a preparation for death. Nevertheless, American-flavoured fundamentalist Christianity has experienced an exponential rise in recent years across the Chinese diaspora.

Evangelistic preachers from various Pentecostal sects periodically pass through Hong Kong, and their emotionally charged revival meetings generate fresh batches of “true believers”.

Despite having a constricted world view derived from literal interpretations of the Bible, their narrow-minded influence continues to expand and ferment within top levels of government and the business community.

Serious public discussion of the quantifiably pernicious effects these groups have on contemporary Hong Kong’s civil society remains muted.

Among the most renowned early “Holy Rollers” to visit Hong Kong was Aimee Semple McPherson. By the 1920s, she was one of the most recognised women in the world and only the second female in the United States to hold a radio broadcast licence.

McPherson exerted enormous influence, both through her religious revival meetings and faith-healing performances, and on the exponential growth of Christian Fundamentalist churches in poverty-stricken, backward areas of the US.

In recent decades, these groups have multiplied across the world – including Hong Kong – like bacteria on the petri dish of annually more apparent social disadvantage.