Protecting people in protected places

Abstract

This article addresses the previously understudied issue of protection within Christian missions, deepening the understanding of gender as a central factor in how protection has been understood in mission work. It takes four Scandinavian female missionaries, working as YWCA secretaries in Changsha, as its starting point for a discussion of perceptions of protection in times of unrest. The analysis spans the years 1917–1927, a politically turbulent period in the history of Hunan, with recurring outbursts of violence and increasing anti-foreign sentiments. During these periods of unrest, missionaries were put in positions in which they had to act not only as social and spiritual evangelists of the Christian gospel but also as security providers. This article investigates the complexity of perceptions of protection within discursive structures of gender and the ways in which the women navigated prevailing structures to provide protection for people they cared about and to attain influence over situations in which their control was endangered. The analysis focuses on the use of protective symbols, on the mission site as both protected and threatened space, and on the female missionary as both protecting guardian and in need of protection.