Practical Christianity in Practice: Chinese Youth Culture and the Scouting Movement as Seen by British Missionaries at the Griffith John College, Hankou, 1915–1925

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article, which highlights the religious origin of early Chinese scouting, scrutinises the connections between scouting, Christianity, and cultural exchange in early twentieth-century China. It provides insight into the history of Chinese youth by examining how British missionary scoutmasters, highly critical of Chinese parenting, introduced an alternate model of adolescence with a ‘civilising’ mission at Griffith John College – a mission school founded by the London Missionary Society in Hankou for Chinese male adolescents. This article contends that Chinese scouting was initially designed as an effective means to practice Christianity in evangelical ministries which equipped Chinese scouts with ‘fine virtues’ – elements that shaped them to become ‘good citizens’ and help them ‘overcome’ superstitious social customs. Apart from studying the role of scouting in China, this article also examines the effects of Christian missions on Chinese society in the cultural exchange influenced by the ‘civilising’ perspective that upheld by missionary scoutmasters. The cultural imperialism inherent in scout training hindered the development of a thorough Chinese citizenship at the national level. But the ways foreign evangelists educated their boy scouts did bring some positive impacts on Chinese youth culture, enlarging the scope of Christian missions to different possibilities and creative potential in cultural interaction between the colonisers and the colonised.