In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Scholarship on Quaker Missionaries in China: a Sparse Past but a Rich Future?
  • Olivia D. Rauss (bio)

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, published research on Western Quakers’ interactions with other cultures through missionary work has covered a small sampling of locations around the globe.1 These studies of Quakers’ contacts with foreign cultures have suggested that the interactions between Western Quakers and “foreign cultures” are complex and multifaceted. In addition, these studies point to some of the ways in which Quakers’ interactions outside their own insular communities can reveal the manner in which the West has dealt with different and “exotic” places. Although Quakers have a stereotypical reputation for living unostentatiously and defending societies’ under-dogs, recent studies indicate that “simple” Quakers “doing good” may not be as “simple” or “good” as often categorized in the popular mind.2 Despite the abundance of primary sources, and the intricacies of Western/Chinese relations, little has been written that explores the intricacy, nuance, and changing dynamics of the Quaker missionary presence in China.

Narrative and analytic studies of Quakers in China have been scant, spotty, and limited in perspective. This essay strives to inspire and encourage scholars to bring the story of Quakers in China out of the shadows and into the mainstream of historical/religious inquiry.

What has been. . .

The Western world in general has had a longstanding political and cultural interest in the Far East, including China. Due in part to its historic disinterest in and dismissal of the outside world, China has held an almost hypnotic fascination for the West. The exotic aura of China was often fed by Westerners’ limited knowledge, which came from snippets of subjective reports sent home by missionaries. It was not until the last decades of the Qing Dynasty in the nineteenth century that China became more open to Western visitors, and then only for trading and missionary activity. 3 China’s wariness of outsiders was perhaps well-advised, for as soon as “outsiders” gained entrance, they brought with them the seeds of chaos and disaster.4 British India swiftly engaged Qing Dynasty China in opium production, which soon led to the Opium Wars during the mid-1800s. [End Page 48] The Qing Dynasty’s crushing losses in these wars left China greatly weakened, allowing not only the swift carving up of China by the Western powers, but also enabling greater numbers of Westerners to gain entrance into China until the end of World War II. At that point, China again set strict limits on Western entry, even as Westerners’ curiosity and imagination about the exotic “Orient” remained high.5

Thus, from the mid-nineteenth century, China was never far from the minds of Westerners. Events such as the Taiping Rebellion from 1850–64 (one of the bloodiest civil wars in human history), and the Boxer Rebellion from 1898–1901(when nationalist Chinese aimed to evict foreign imperialists, especially Christian missionaries, from Beijing), kept China a sinister and threatening image in Western minds. During WWII, after China fell victim to Japanese invasion, international opinion assumed a more sympathetic cast as China joined the Western Allied Powers in resisting the rise of fascism.6

The romance with the West was short-lived, however. As China emerged from World War II with communist leadership, their World War II “allies” began to distance themselves from this relatively new relationship, even as they continued to think about China. With growing anxiety, Westerners watched China’s post-World War II Cultural Revolution and its harsh treatment of pro-democracy movements. However, as the twenty-first century dawned, China—with its increasing economic and technological power—has resurfaced in the minds of many Westerners, who often focus on China’s questionable human rights practices, its treatment of Tibet, and its seeming dismissal of environmental concerns. Western commentators continue to turn negative international attention on the country, even as international markets gain respect for China’s growing economic power. China, in turn, despite lingering tensions, has welcomed and embraced Western commercial and tourist connections. Yet Westerners still have only a cloudy picture of how the world appeared in the late nineteenth century, when missionaries were the only...

pdf

Share