Shanghai, China -

St Ignatius cathedral, like those specks of dust, is a quiet beauty floating in the midst of Shanghai's otherwise hectic Xujiahui area – a multitude of malls, fast food joints (five KFCs and counting) and human river of frenzied shopping. The cathedral's towering cross-topped steeples and intricate red brickwork stand out in dramatic contrast to the utilitarian buildings surrounding it. Visiting the cathedral, which is set back from the main street, is almost like discovering a fairytale castle in a forest of urban skyscrapers.

Now the cathedral is undergoing a restoration that will make it stand out even more. The church's clear glass windows are being replaced in a unique project, bringing back the once brilliant stained glass. Even more fantastic than just infusing new colour into the church, the window designs will incorporate Chinese art, symbols and writing, marking a major new development for church art in China.

The cathedral was built in the early 1900's by French Jesuits, but its original stained glass windows were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. For many years, the building was relegated to a grain storehouse. It was only in 1979 that the cathedral, which is the largest Catholic church in Shanghai and has space for 3,000 worshippers, was once again used by the Catholic community for services.

In 2001, Shanghai's Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian had the idea of creating new stained glass for the cathedral, a major project considering the 3,000 square feet of windows. Bishop Jin began by bringing together a group of people who could turn the clear glass back into jewel-tones.

Bishop Jin has long considered church art to be an integral part of the religious experience. In the 1990's, he had sent a small group of Chinese artists to Europe to study religious art. Wo Ye was the only one who returned, after studying church art in the Philippines, Milan and the United States. Bishop Jin recognised Wo's commitment, as well as her skills, and asked her to become the artist and designer of Xujiahui's stained glass.

Bishop Jin also called upon a contact in the United States, Father Thomas Lucas, an Associate Professor of art at the Jesuit University of San Francisco and a renowned expert in stained glass work. After much discussion, Bishop Jin, Father Lucus and Wo Ye determined that Wo Ye's designs would incorporate a "new language" – Chinese. Through Lucas, Wo learned not only about the physical production of stained glass, but also about a modern approach to church art.

"We are using traditional European construction, but Chinese designs," said Lucus during a visit to Shanghai in October. At his talk at the Westin hotel, which is sponsoring an exhibit of some of the already completed stained glass panes, Lucus spoke enthusiastically about the project.

"We are incorporating Chinese colours and symbols, including such designs as Chinese papercut art, patterns from antique Chinese wooden windows, and traditional Chinese images such as the phoenix and the lotus flower," says Lucus. "Using Chinese symbols to illustrate the gospel creates a union of cultures, just like Shanghai."

"Father Lucus is a great theologian," says Wo Ye. "We argue all the time but that's the most interesting part. He tells me that the present theological ideas are moving toward localisation. For example, African Christians portray Mary with black skin."

Now, in what may be one of the world's only all-woman stained glass workshops, four Chinese nun volunteers have learned from Lucus and Wo the relatively simple but painstaking process of creating the glass panels. Wo Ye draws the pictures or patterns onto the glass while the other steps, including firing, sandblasting, cutting, piecing together and finishing, are completed by the nuns.

The project is estimated to take five years to complete, and Wo Ye's workload is heavy. Despite the low cost of producing stained glass in China compared to Europe, the cathedral still lacks enough funding to complete the whole project. Sourcing excellent, affordable glass is also challenging, as low quality glass changes colours unpredictably after firing.

Wo Ye single-handedly deals with everything from managing the workshop and ordering glass and lead, to publicity for the project. She says she feels incredibly lucky to be given the "chance in a million" of creating the stained glass for an entire cathedral. However, the most stimulating part of the work may be in finding Christian inspiration in Chinese art and traditions and rendering them in glass.

"There is no simple replacement of an Eastern object with a Western one," says Wo Ye. "For example, to the Chinese the dragon is a benign figure whereas in the Christian stories, the dragon is a symbol of evil. It's not easy to use such a symbol. The phoenix is different as it has a lot of meanings in common in the East and the West." Other symbols that Wo works in to her cross-cultural images include the magpie, which she uses in place of the dove. "The magpie spreads the good news of the birth of Jesus," says Wo, "while the phoenix is a symbol of peace. Also, it is the king of all birds, indicating Jesus is the king of kings, bringing peace to the world."

Wo Ye is looking to push localisation even further in the latter stages of the glass designs. "We are now considering using Chinese faces for some saints," she says.

After Lucus's talk at the Westin, the audience moved into the third floor balcony of the hotel's light-filled atrium. A group of finished panes of glass hang in the ceiling height windows, casting brilliant colours into the room. In one pane, Jesus kneels in a grove of sheltering trees, representing him praying to God in a wooden chapel. Above him is an ancient Chinese wine vessel representing wine for the blood of Christ, and below him are the Chinese characters 'shan yuan qidao', which can be loosely translated as, 'Praying in the mountain garden'.

It's provocative just to look at this pane and think of the different influences. For Westerners, the jolt of seeing the story told in a new artistic language makes the experience fresh, and perhaps inspires new insights. For Chinese, seeing the Bible expressed using native themes gives the stories a greater intimacy and relevance.

The combination of Chinese and Western symbols not only shines new light onto the work of interpreting the Bible for a Chinese audience, it also contributes to the development of modern religious art. As Wo says, "It is a wonderful opportunity for me as an artist to make a significant contribution to a major project in China as it reopens to the world. We have our own language and culture in China so church art should be bound to the Chinese character."