Stained-glass designer Wo Ye [WR410/5 PRC06DJ-249]

The Gospel story in stained glass, Chinese-style
Based partly on an interview by Kjell Hagen Freelance Photojournalist

Shanghai’s St Ignatius Cathedral (also known as Xujiahui Cathedral) is one of the city’s most prominent Christian landmarks, and is attended by 2,000 Christians each Sunday. It was built by Jesuit priests between 1905 and 1910 and was known as “the grandest cathedral in the Far East,” with its dramatic gothic spires and 300 square metres of stained glass windows. In 1966, however, during the Cultural Revolution, its spires and ceilings were torn down and its windows smashed. For nearly two decades it was used as a grain warehouse.

In the 1980s it was restored and its empty windows filled with plain glass. But a project is under way that will transform the cathedral: every one of the hundreds of window panes will be filled with colourful stained glass depicting the life of Christ using 1,000-year-old Chinese folk art. “There are no pictures of the original stained glass before it was destroyed, or copies for us to work from,” says artist Wo Ye, 44, who, along with Father Thomas Lucas, a Jesuit priest and art professor, is responsible for the design of the new windows. “But this has given us an opportunity to create something suitable for contemporary church life – something new that is both Catholic and Chinese.”

Iconography

The windows are being made in a small workshop by three Chinese nuns. Some examples of the blend of Chinese and Catholic iconography that they are creating include replacing the lily, which is often used in the West as a symbol of Mary, with a blooming lotus, and using a Chinese abacus in the scene of Jesus and the money-changers. But for Wo Ye, the story depicted in one particular window is particularly powerful. “Of all the stories in the Bible, the story of Jesus’ desperate prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane fascinates me the most,” she comments. “It contains everything and conveys the deep emotion felt by Christ.”

Stained glass windows at Saint Ignatius Catholic Cathedral, Shanghai [WR410/5 PRC06DJ-687, 693, 696, 706]

Life changed

At a young age Wo Ye rebelled against her strict upbringing by parents who are prominent communists and atheists by deciding to become an artist. She started out by painting on porcelain but then, 14 years ago, at the age of 30, she became a Christian. “My life changed completely when I became a Christian,” smiles Wo Ye, as she reflects on her subsequent decision to study church art, which took her to Italy and the USA for seven years. She returned to China in 2001 to work on the St Ignatius project, which, it is hoped, will be completed by 2010, in time for the cathedral’s 100th anniversary.

(WR410/5-04.07)[6 photos]