Missionary activity in China in the 19th and 20th centuries

Content Warning
Historical resources referred to in this post reflect the racial prejudices of the era in which they were created, and some items include language and imagery which is offensive, oppressive and may cause upset. This is not condoned by The University of Manchester, but we are committed to providing access to this material as evidence of the inequalities and attitudes of the time period.

In western discussions of Christian missionary activity in the 19th and 20th centuries, China is often absent from the conversation. Perhaps this is because China was not subject to the same colonial and administrative rule which went hand in hand with proselytising missions in regions such as Africa and India; or, perhaps it is because European narratives of Chinese history have chosen to focus on the non-religious People’s Republic of China. However, in 2018, the Chinese government confirmed that there are currently over 44 million self-identifying Christians living in China today. Even though this only represents approximately 0.03% of the Chinese population, when we consider the fact that almost half a billion modern Chinese citizens are practising Christians, the lasting impact of missionary activity begins to emerge.

Image with two Illustrations, one a man ministering to a group of people, the other the man being saved from falling into a hole by a man holding onto a large cross for support. Illustration is accompanied by text in Chinese characters

At the University of Manchester Library Special Collections, we have a diverse range of photographic, illustrative and written material on Chinese history. Many of these records relate to Christian missions from Europe to China in the 19th and 20th centuries. These records can help provide insight into an understudied but nonetheless influential aspect of modern Chinese society.

‘The evangelisation of the world in this generation’: the 19th century

The 19th century became known as the great century of modern religious missions by proselytising Christians. Perhaps the most well-known Christian missionary in China during this period was Robert Morrison. Christian religious teaching had been circulating in China since at least the 8th century AD, but the conversion missions of the 19th century brought with them a political and economic ideology which lent zeal to their purpose. Morrison was a member of the London Missionary Society and arrived in Macau, south China in 1807. Whilst in China, like many missionaries, he published a Chinese translation of the Bible and compiled a Chinese dictionary for English speakers. He was also responsible for the ordination of Liang Fa, the Chinese printer who helped him publish his Chinese-language Bible.

However, five years after Morrison arrived in Macau, Christianity was added to the list of banned religions in China. This ruling had severe consequences for Chinese citizens who were Christian. In the most extreme cases, Christians who would not give up their faith were sold into slavery. The criminalisation of Christianity in China had a predictably negative impact on the conversion of Chinese citizens to the Christian faith. Despite being the most prominent missionary in China in the early 19th century, in the 27 years he spent in the country Robert Morrison only managed to directly convert 25 people.

Towards the middle of the 19th century, Christian missions in China began to pick up again. This is due to two key events. Firstly, the victory of the British and French empires over China in the Second Opium War (1856–60) led to a series of political reforms which bestowed full civil rights upon Christians in China. This included the right to own property and the right to proselytise. Secondly, despite his defeat, the influence of the teachings of the Christian revolutionary Hong Xiuquan during the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) continued to have a strong influence on Chinese thinking. These events fostered an environment in which Christianity could take root in China.

Map of China showing the stations of the China inland missions. Slide has a label ‘Front Top’ to ensure it is placed the correct way round

During the same period, the writings of Yorkshire-born missionary James Hudson Taylor, who spent 51 years in China, were highly effective in encouraging other Christians to take up missionary work in the East. It is believed that Taylor was responsible for inspiring 800 Christian missionaries to travel to China, as a result of which 125 new schools were set up and 18,000 Chinese citizens were converted to the Christian faith. As well as providing a Christian education, these missionaries also aided the introduction of western medical practices to China.

Yet despite these successes, by 1900 there were only 100,000 Protestant Christian converts in China. This is attributed in part to the fact that many missionaries left China after less than 10 years in residency due to a combination of the difficulty of learning the Chinese language and medical issues. Furthermore, on the whole Chinese citizens were still wary of Christianity. For the majority of people, it was associated with the legalisation of opium after the Opium Wars, the millions killed in the Taiping Rebellion, western imperialist ideology, and the unfair treatment China experienced due to the legislation drawn up in the ‘unequal treaty’. This sentiment cultivated in the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), an anti-Christian and anti-imperialist insurrection which was directed against Christian missionaries in China.

‘The golden age’: 1900–1925

Picture postcards of early 20th century missionaries to China. On the left is G. Herbert, who sailed in 1910, and on the right is Miss T.L. Thomas, who sailed in 1908.

After the disastrous events of 1899–1901, the first quarter of the 20th century is seen by many scholars as the golden age of Christianity in China. Indeed, many citizens were converted and many churches were built during this period. Furthermore, Christian missionaries were coming up with new ways of promoting conversion. This included implementing a programme of ‘indigenisation’ in which local Christian leaders were appointed to run the churches in their area, as well as an increased focus on interdenominational teaching. However, this golden age was short-lived and soon began to dwindle. The New Culture Movement in China, with its emphasis on democracy and empirically-verifiable scientific truths, cemented the already common association of Christianity with anti-empiricism and foreign control. The Anti-Christian movement of 1923, which attacked Christian missions to China on similar grounds, marked the end of this golden age.

Medical missionaries: the 1930s

The New Culture and Anti-Christian movements did not put an end to missionary activity in China, rather it was channelled in new directions. In the 1930s, the focus shifted to medical missionary work, which had its foundations in 19th century missionary activity. By 1931, approximately half of hospitals in China and Hong Kong were overseen by Protestant and Catholic missionaries. These missionary hospitals were also responsible for the running of medical schools which produced qualified doctors and nurses. Both the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and the Hackett Medical College for Women were established by Christian missionary men and women.

The 1940s and the Exodus of 1953

Before the end of the 1940s, there were 3 million Catholic and 1 million Protestant Christians in China. However, world events including the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War meant that Chinese churches began to separate themselves from the missionary organisations who had founded them. This new-found autonomy is largely responsible for the foundation of the Three-Self Church and the Patriotic Catholic Church which would become very influential in later 20th century China.

The decline of missionary activity in any particular region is usually due to a combination of factors, but in China there is one overarching reason as to why Christian missions came to an end. They had been on a steady decline due to military and social unrest since the so-called ‘golden age’ of the early 20th century, however it was with the dawn of communism in China that Christian missionary activity was finally extinguished. Indeed, by 1953, only 4 years after the communist party had come to power, all Protestant missionaries had been expelled from China and returned home.

Colf[?] preaching to crowd

Measuring the impact of Christianity on Chinese culture after 1953, and to what extent this impact was engineered by 19th and 20th century Christian missionaries, is a complex task. The above is only an introduction to the people, beliefs and events which shaped, and continue to shape, the role of Christianity in China. The resources linked to in this blog post and the Further Resources section below are a good starting point for research on this topic.

The Lantern Slides in this blog post (as well as further visual material, correspondence and many other records) can be found in the Echoes of Service Archive. Many of these records are digitised and are available to view here.

Discussion points

1. Can you identify any ways in which Christian missions have impacted, either directly or indirectly, modern-day Chinese culture?
2. What are the similarities and differences between Christian missionary activity in China and other regions such as Africa and India?

Further resources

For a comprehensive introduction to the scope and content of the Echoes of Service Archive, see its entry on the Archives Hub: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/7880d2e4-ebf8-3ccc-be39-703395b75f27?terms=echoes%20of%20service

To browse digitised images of records relating to missionary activity in China and other regions held by the Special Collections, see: https://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/view/search?search=SUBMIT&q=echoes+of+service&dateRangeStart=&dateRangeEnd=&QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA