A building that was once built as a teaching building by missionaries is now used as a complex building for the Fujian Church.
In 1854, missionaries of the English Presbyterian Mission went from Xiamen to Zhangpu County, also in Fujian Province, to share the gospel. The mission built Puyi Church, also known as Xin Lu Wei Church, in 1899.
Then the church founded schools and a hospital. In 1892, they built a kindergarten and a girls' school to teach illiterate women Chinese and Minnan written vernacular. In 1920, the alumnae and the English Presbyterian Mission paid for the building of a 600-square-meter girls' school next to Puyi Church. This building is now a provincial cultural relics protection unit and is known as the "Red Mansion."
It was also used as a military office by the Red Army, which freed Zhangpu on April 24, 1932, and it was there that the Zhangpu County Revolutionary Committee was set up.
In June 2011, the Party History Research Office of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee named it the Fujian Provincial Party History Education Base.
The Zhangpu County Government returned the building property in January 2020 to Puyi Church in Zhangpu County, which decorated the red mansion for more than half a year and built a two-story dormitory building. As well as being used for the administrative work of Zhangpu County Christian Council and Puyi Church, the building is also used for the church’s meetings and activities, including Morning Light Fellowship, Nissi Fellowship, and Youth Fellowship, easing the shortage of church space.
(The article is originally published by the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
