The Chinese Sisters Until 1929

Abstract

This chapter highlights China—the country’s reform, revolution, intellectual renaissance, and the demands of a world war—in the first two decades of the twentieth century. It emphasizes the Chinese sisters’ service to the needy, the women and the children of Chinese families. It describes the process of independence of the Tertiaries—they themselves becoming an independent congregation known as the Sisters of the Precious Blood under the direct control of the Hong Kong Catholic Mission in 1922. This chapter also introduces the foundress (Sister Clara Tam), the Constitutions of the Precious Blood Sisters of Charity of 1912–1914, and the Constitutions of the Chinese Sisters of the Precious Blood in Hong Kong of 1929. It discusses the relationship between the Chinese and Italian sisters, the education of Chinese girls, the training of novices, the formation of sisters, the concerns of the Universal Catholic Church, and the indigenization of the China Mission.