Today, SOLA Network is pleased to present an excerpt of the essay “The Glorious Gospel of the Son of God” by Victor Guo” from The Center of House Church Theology. Victor Guo is the pastor of a house church in China. He writes about the issues surrounding cultural expectations and gender preference in the preference of sons over daughters and brings the issue into the spotlight of the gospel.
We encourage you to read this essay and to check out The Center for House Church Theology (CHCT). This organization fosters and furthers the international publishing of pastors, church leaders, and teachers committed to the historic gospel of grace in China’s urban house churches. In promoting the theological leadership of China’s urban house churches, they believe dialogue between Christians in China and those from other cultural contexts will lead to mutual edification and sanctification.
The Glorious Gospel of the Son of God by Victor Guo
The Chinese “Son Complex”
In 1911, the American sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross wrote a book titled The Changing Chinese based on his rigorous observation and investigation of Chinese culture. In the book, he provides this memorable summary: “From time immemorial, the things considered most worthwhile have been posterity, learning, and riches—in the order named.”1 Even though this was written more than a hundred years ago, it is certainly not far from reality today.
The problem of posterity that Professor Ross observed mainly referred to male descendants. Most people in China have always placed great importance on having sons. Daughters are regarded as ancillary or even superfluous. In Chinese culture, the birth of a boy is referred to as “the joy of a jade toy.” This phrase comes from the Book of Odes: “If a boy I one day bear, in a bed him I shall lay. Splendid clothing he shall wear, with jade trinkets he shall play.” This means that if the mother gives birth to a boy, she will let him sleep on a bed and will dress him in nice clothes and give him jade trinkets to play with.
But the birth of a girl is referred to as “the joy of a ceramic toy.” This also comes from the Book of Odes2: “If a girl I one day bear, on the floor her I shall lay. Swaddling clothes she shall wear, with ceramic trinkets play.” This means that if the mother gives birth to a girl, then she will make her sleep on the ground and will wrap her in swaddling clothes and will give her ceramic trinkets to play with.
The two clearly receive different treatments. From a practical perspective, boys are thought to be the ones who truly prolong one’s life and carry on one’s own family line, while girls are seen as merely helping others to carry on their family lines. People have looked to boys to continue their family lineage and to offer sacrifices to their ancestors.
This preference for sons over daughters has led to immeasurable suffering for women in China. Many baby girls have been abused, even abandoned and killed. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were many “baby towers” where people would abandon baby girls and leave them to die. Ironically, one of the towers was engraved with the name “Tower of Righteousness.”
Ultrasound and modern abortion techniques have made it more convenient to determine the sex of babies and to kill them while turning a blind eye. Oddly enough, if you look closely you will discover that women who have suffered the most from this preference for sons over daughters in real life actually prefer sons over daughters more than men do. This cultural preference for boys has not only done harm to women, however. It has also done harm to men.
First of all, adult men do not actually have much freedom in this culture of strict filial piety. A man’s marriage and future career are often arranged by his parents. After he establishes his own family, his parents will expect to live together with him and his new family. Many people pursue the ideal of four generations all living under one roof.
Of course, it is not necessarily a bad thing for four generations to live together. The main problem is that it is not clear what the boundaries are or who has what authority, which easily leads to misunderstanding and conflict. In this kind of multi-generational living situation, a 40-year-old man will sometimes even be required to give his income to his father every month. There are not many situations like this now, but not long ago this was quite common in China.
Secondly, when a man starts his own family, he must prioritize the mission of his larger family so that loving and providing for his own wife and children become secondary matters. This is especially true in families with few men, where a man becomes the hope of his family and the way out of their difficult circumstances. In the past, if a man passed the imperial examinations and became a government official, he had the moral responsibility to seek benefits for his relatives and neighbors—a responsibility that he could not refuse. Therefore, it is not hard to see that from ancient times until now, when government officials take power, many of them place their relatives in positions that ensure a worry-free and financially profitable life.
Professor Ross is right: “In China…there are few duties more sacred than that of helping your kinsmen even at other people’s expense.”3 From the perspective of traditional culture, this nepotism was one of the most devout expressions of filial piety toward one’s elders, both living and dead. But on the other hand, this view that makes the male heir the center of attention actually places great pressure on the son. If he is not successful, he will feel ashamed to face his father. But if he succeeds, he will feel a great moral burden to take care of his needy relatives at the expense of others. Because as a boy, you are the hope of your entire family. You are their messiah and savior.
This amounts to treating a man like God, which the Bible calls idolatry. The things we turn into idols are not always bad. Rather, we take a good thing and treat it as the best thing. In reality, an idol does not have any true weight or value. It is empty, and yet it can control a man. When we treat our sons as our way out of difficulties, as our saviors, even as our hope of glory, we place on them an unbearable responsibility and ask them to make promises that they cannot fulfill.
Click here to read the rest of Victor Guo’s essay. Learn more about House Church Theology and the work they do with Chinese house churches by visiting their website.
- Edward Alsworth Ross, The Changing Chinese, trans. Gong Maohong and Zhang Hao (Beijing Shishi Chubanshe, 2006), 96
- The Book of Odes is an ancient Chinese book of poetry written between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. It is one of the “six classics” of ancient Chinese literature.
- The Changing Chinese, 131.