The Jiangyin Mission Station: An American Missionary Community in China, 1895-1951

Abstract

The Jiangyin Mission Station: An American Missionary Community in 1895-1951. Lawrence D. Kessler. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. $24.95 paper. Gender, Culture, and Christianity: American Protestant Mission Schools in 1880-1930. Gael Graham. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1995. $48.95 hardback. Today, ideas and values flow cross-culturally with relative ease. In late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, one of few conduits between East and West were American missionaries. Thousands of Americans went out into world to fulfill God's Call, but majority of them landed in establishing American communities throughout Chinese empire. One such community was started by two American missionaries of Southern Presbyterian Church in city of Jiangyin, 100 miles upriver from Shanghai. There, mission survived outbreaks of anti-foreignism, Chinese civil war, and Sino-Japanese War before succumbing in 1951. Why did this American community last as long as it did? Lawrence Kessler reaches not-so-novel conclusion that Jiangyin community's success was based on certain secular activities rather than religious message they sought to spread, such as their medical and educational work (1-2). Their approach, writes Kessler, differed from more conservative Christians who focused on individual salvation because it was grounded in gospel which encouraged Christians to engage in all forms of work and...called for complete reconstruction of society. Believing that reconstruction had to precede evangelization, Jiangyin Americans sought to regenerate by modernizing, civilizing, and Westernizing it through their secular good works (157-58). The downside to this approach was two-fold. One was that social gospel impeded growth of an indigenous Christian church in China, though Kessler presents little evidence to support that point. Another was that despite winning much goodwill on part of Chinese populace, missionaries opened themselves to attack by virulent Chinese nationalism which resented protections afforded to foreigners by unequal treaties, and missionaries' refusal to share power with Chinese Christians (160-61). Moreover, missionaries' transmission of new ideas and institutions...backed by political and military foreign powers was, in Kessler's words, a classic case of `cultural imperialism' (159). This fast-paced survey of of an American community in context of national and international history is superb introduction for anyone not familiar with American missionary work in China. Yet, book's brevity and shallow treatment of many key points limits its usefulness. The main characters are lifeless, entering and exiting stage with little explanation as to their backgrounds and thinking. In fact, brief discussion of their gospel approach comes only at end. Other than interesting chapter on their supporting denomination, little is said to help reader distinguish Jiangyin missionaries doctrinally and culturally from American Methodist or Baptist missionaries, or for that matter, British Methodists and Baptists. There is not much discussion of what and how American values were imparted to local Chinese populace. Nor does Kessler explain how missionaries presented Chinese to their supporters even though he claims several times that missionaries were the most perceptive and knowledgable foreigners in China (4, 140, 141). …