Palgrave Handbook of the Catholic Church in East Asia

This Handbook analyses explores the Catholic Church in East Asia following a chronological framework to trace events to the 21st century. This Handbook considers the horizontal strata of society through space, examining key issues such as church architecture, music and images, the Church's role in education, linguistic and translation issues surrounding Bible studies, evangelization and the building of Church hierarchy, religious formation, and gender relations. Exploring the Vatican’s relations with East Asian countries from the beginning of the Church in Asia, this Handbook offers a key reference to Asian Church history for students and researchers in Christianity studies, History, Cultural and Asian studies.

Cindy Yik-yi Chu writes about the Catholic Church and Catholic sisters in Mainland China and Hong Kong. She has published 19 books and over 60 articles in edited volumes and academic journals. Her recent works include Cardinal John Tong: Renewal within Tradition in the Catholic Church in Hong Kong (Palgrave, 2024); The Catholic Church, the Bible, and Evangelization in China (edited, Palgrave, 2021); People, Communities, and the Catholic Church in China (co-edited with Paul P. Mariani, Palgrave, 2020); and The Chinese Sisters of the Precious Blood and the Evolution of the Catholic Church (Palgrave, 2016).Her research interests include the history of the Catholic Church in modern and contemporary China and Hong Kong, Catholic sisters in Chinese societies, and Sino-Vatican relations. She edited The Palgrave Handbook of the Catholic Church in East Asia and has been working on the history of Sino-Vatican relations. Beatrice Leung is a religious member of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, a Hong Kong Catholic diocesan congregation. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. After teaching for nearly forty years at tertiary education institutes in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, she is now an honorary research professor at the Centre of Taiwan Studies, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.Her research focuses on Church relations with governments in the Greater China Region (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), with an emphasis on the Catholic Church. She has authored and edited 14 books, including The Catholic Church in Taiwan: Birth, Growth and Development (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, co-edited) and The Catholic Church in Taiwan: Problems and Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, co-edited), as well as more than 100 Chinese and English articles in academic journals and book chapters.