Anthony E. Clark


Anthony Eugene Clark is an American Sinologist, historian, and writer who has authored dozens of books, articles, and other publications in the fields of Sino-Western, Sino-Missionary, and ancient Chinese history. He is the Edward B. Lindaman Endowed Chair and a professor of Chinese history at Whitworth University. He previously taught courses on Chinese history, culture, and literature at the University of Oregon, and The University of Alabama. His most widely read books are China's Saints: Catholic Martyrdom during the Qing, Heaven in Conflict: Franciscans and the Boxer Uprising in Shanxi, and China Gothic: The Bishop of Beijing and His Cathedral, which includes a foreword by the architectural historian, Leland M. Roth. Clark's major interest is late-imperial China, especially the final decades of the Qing Dynasty, and the intellectual and religious relations between China and the West.

Education

Clark received his BA and PhD from the University of Oregon, where he focused on Chinese language, literature, and history. He has also studied at the Central University for Nationalities/Minzu University of China in Beijing, China, Alliance Française in Paris, France, and the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan.

Life and works

Born on 12 March 1967 in Eugene, Oregon, and after brief studies at Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary, he studied and taught Chinese martial arts such as Yang Style Tai Chi and 7-Star Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu from 1979 until 1995. He began his advanced studies of classical Sinology under Stephen W. Durrant, a scholar on the Han dynasty historian, Sima Qian, at the University of Oregon in 1995. Clark's scholarly interest while studying at Oregon centered on the early Han dynasty historian, Ban Gu, and also on the history of Sino-Western interactions, especially in the area of Roman Catholic missionary exchange with Chinese intellectuals during the late Qing. Given his experience as a Catholic seminarian and having studied Chinese martial arts, he developed an interest in the Sino-Missionary conflicts between local Chinese martial artists and Roman Catholic missionaries during the Boxer Uprising, which led to the publication of China's Saints and Heaven in Conflict. Clark's interest in the history of how women participated in important historical transitions during the late-imperial China also inspired him to dedicate much of Heaven in Conflict to the role of female Boxers, known as Red Lanterns, in the events of the Boxer incidents at Shanxi in 1900.
In 2019, Clark published the first scholarly study of the famous Xishiku Roman Catholic cathedral in Beijing and its architect, Alphonse Favier, China Gothic: The Bishop of Beijing and His Cathedral. This is the only Christian church in Beijing to have survived in Beijing through the Boxer Uprising in 1900, and it since 1984 it is protected as one of China’s national cultural relics. In 2020, a compendium of his essays was published that highlights Clark’s observations while conducting research and writing in China, entitled China’s Catholic in an Era of Transformation: Observations of an “Outsider”.
After receiving his first appointment at The University of Alabama in 2005, Clark published his first book on Han dynasty historiography, and turned to his main scholarly focus, which is the history of Christian missions in China. Clark's scholarly publications on Christianity in China have combined his Sinological training in early Chinese texts and his training in late-imperial Sino-Western exchange to analyze how traditional Chinese religious and philosophical views have intersected with those views that were imported into China by Western missionaries. This area of focus resulted in invitations to provide talks and workshops on his work at such institutions as Oxford University, and Berkeley in 2017, and Princeton University in 2009.
His acquaintances with several high-profile Roman Catholics in Mainland China, such as Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, Bishop Anicetus Wang Chongyi, Bishop Augustine Hu Daguo, Bishop Peter Xinmao Feng, Bishop Silvester Li Jiantang, and Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, provided Clark with several insights into the current situation of the Catholic Church in China. The online Catholic news source, Catholic World Report, features a column, "Clark on China," that publishes frequent essays by Anthony Clark that are known for being balanced and historically grounded commentaries on Catholicism in modern China.

Honors

Clark was awarded the J. William Fulbright Program Fellowship for research in early Chinese history and literature, and he prepared his first book, Ban Gu's History of Early China while a Fulbright Scholar at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan from 2001-2002. Clark was also awarded research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities /American Council for Learned Societies and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, to prepare his book, Heaven in Conflict: Franciscans and the Boxer Uprising in Shanxi, while at Minzu University of China in Beijing, China, from 2012-2013. He was inducted into several academic honors societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Lambda Delta, Phi Eta Sigma, and the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Books (Selected)