International colloquium “Autour de l’Institut franco-chinois (1921–1950) : diaspora étudiante, circulation des savoirs et relations institutionnelles sino-françaises”
Lyon, France, 26–28 May 2025
Organizers: Jacqueline Estran (IETT, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3), Marie Laureillard (CRPM, Université Paris Nanterre), Florent Villard (ERIMIT, Sciences Po Rennes)
Abstract:
According to its statutes, the Institut franco-chinois (IFC) in Lyon was supposed to be neutral in the question of religion, but still a strong anti-religious atmosphere prevailed among its Chinese students. A group of students belonging to the anarchistic camp circulated publications advocating atheism. For Chinese woman writer Su Xuelin 蘇雪林 (1897–1999), who was one of the first students of the newly founded IFC, this educational institution can rightly be regarded as her gateway to another world that opened her the way to both intellectual and personal autonomy. However, it also became a hostile environment for her when she decided to convert to Catholicism and was baptized in Lyon in August 1924. According to her personal account, she was exposed to various forms of religious persecution, from social ostracism to outright hatred. As a reaction to her conversion, her Chinese fellow students at the IFC made Su Xuelin a social outcast and threatened to publicly denounce her for her Catholic faith. Politically, they regarded her conversion as treason against China. Ideologically, they accused her of having betrayed the ideals of the May Fourth Movement, i.e., the belief in science and reason. They also spread rumors that she had accepted bribes from the famous Belgian missionary Vincent Lebbe before receiving baptism. This paper probes into the IFC’s function in the Chinese anti-religious movement in France and shows how its ambiguous role in Su Xuelin’s life and conversion is reflected in her fictional and autobiographical texts.