J is known to the Christian circle as a ‘shimu’, a term referring to the wife of a pastor in Chinese. She admitted that when she first quit her corporate job and became a fulltime housewife, or a shimu, to support her husband Wang Yi’s work as a fulltime minister, this term sounded strange and hollow, as very few people knew its implications, and neither did she.
Her difficulty in embracing this new role was also complicated by the fact that house churches, as her husband’s church belongs to, is a form of church that is unable to register with the government due to China’s religious policies that only recognises five “official religions” sanctioned by the state, hence illegal. As such, her place in society has also become dubious by the standard of the mainstream society, and herself anonymous without a recognisable position. And as a former corporate worker, quite a lot of adjustments were needed in order for her to fit in her new role.
Confrontation also came from external pressure. One day she was asked to fill in a form for her son’s school, for which she was embarrassed to put “housewife” as her occupation. Yet neither could she use the title shimu, for it makes no sense to people from outside the Christian circle, not to mention the fact that their church is considered an illegal organisation.
