China's Christian Colleges explores the cross-cultural dynamics that existed on the campuses of the Protestant Christian colleges in China during the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on two-way cultural influences rather than on missionary efforts or Christianization, these campuses, most of which were American-supported and had a distinctly American flavor, were laboratories or incubators of mutual cultural interaction that has been very rare in modern Chinese history. In this Sino-foreign cultural territory, the collaborative educational endeavor between Westerners and Chinese created a highly unusual degree of cultural hybridity in some Americans and Chinese. The thirteen essays of the book provide concrete examples of why even today, more than a half-century after the colleges were taken over by the state, long-lasting cultural results of life in the colleges remain.
China's Christian Colleges explores the cross-cultural dynamics that existed on the campuses of the Protestant Christian colleges in China during the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on two-way cultural influences rather than on missionary efforts or Christianization, these campuses, most of which were American-supported and had a distinctly American flavor, were laboratories or incubators of mutual cultural interaction that has been very rare in modern Chinese history. In this Sino-foreign cultural territory, the collaborative educational endeavor between Westerners and Chinese created a highly unusual degree of cultural hybridity in some Americans and Chinese. The thirteen essays of the book provide concrete examples of why even today, more than a half-century after the colleges were taken over by the state, long-lasting cultural results of life in the colleges remain.
China's Christian Colleges: Cross-Cultural Connections, 1900-1950
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China's Christian Colleges explores the cross-cultural dynamics that existed on the campuses of the Protestant Christian colleges in China during the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on two-way cultural influences rather than on missionary efforts or Christianization, these campuses, most of which were American-supported and had a distinctly American flavor, were laboratories or incubators of mutual cultural interaction that has been very rare in modern Chinese history. In this Sino-foreign cultural territory, the collaborative educational endeavor between Westerners and Chinese created a highly unusual degree of cultural hybridity in some Americans and Chinese. The thirteen essays of the book provide concrete examples of why even today, more than a half-century after the colleges were taken over by the state, long-lasting cultural results of life in the colleges remain.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780804776325 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Publication date: | 02/27/2009 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 432 |
| File size: | 10 MB |
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China's Christian Colleges
CROSS-CULTURAL CONNECTIONS, 1900-1950By Daniel H. Bays Ellen Widmer
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2009 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-5949-6
Chapter One
The SVM and Transformation of the Protestant Mission to China TERRILL E. LAUTZ
The heyday of the Protestant missionary movement coincided with the altruism of the Progressive Era (1890-1914) in the United States, a period of rapid change marked by growing prosperity, optimism, ambition, and self-confidence. Reflecting these traits, the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM), an organization founded in 1886, recruited thousands of American college women and men who vowed, "It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary." The SVM grew out of the work of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and was also associated with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).
There were 33,726 volunteers between 1893 and 1920, of whom approximately one-quarter actually became missionaries; the percentage of women steadily increased until by 1920 they represented 50 percent of the total. About half of the American Protestant missionaries during the early twentieth century were student volunteers, and the largest number who went overseas served in China, where many became involved in schools and colleges. Their experiences helped shape Western-style education in China and brought China into American campus life.
The student volunteers came from across the United States and from Canada at a time when only 4 percent of Americans in the same age-group achieved any education beyond high school. At the turn of the nineteenth century, these students were a cross section of the best and brightest of their generation. They were recruited from a wide range of colleges and universities: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, the University of California, the University of Minnesota, Pennsylvania State University, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Agnes Scott College, the College of Wooster, Berea College, Dickinson College, Pomona College, Ripon College, and many more, including some that no longer exist. A number of candidates also applied from small theology schools and from the large Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
What motivated these young people to respond to the SVM's brazen call for "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation"? What molded their thinking, and how did they express their hopes and concerns? What prompted these youths to leave their homes and families for a cause that seemed heroic but was full of uncertainty? What was the attraction of China? And what were the implications of the SVM experience for secular American foreign assistance and international education programs that emerged later in the twentieth century?
Based on a random sampling of hundreds of SVM applications held at the Yale University Divinity School's Day Missions Library, I have tried to glean an understanding of the mentality that informed the mission movement at the turn of the last century. This chapter argues that the Christian mandate to evangelize was a starting point that gave young Americans the courage to want to become missionaries; yet religious conviction alone does not explain the impulse to venture forth to unknown lands, leaving kith and kin behind. There was something more, something central to the American self-image that was embodied in the Student Volunteer Movement. In part, it was a reflection of the American Progressive Era, which "believed that human nature was basically good and that government could improve and perfect society to create a better world."
Ultimately, those who aspired to become missionaries were seeking self-fulfillment through an act of selfless generosity, a motive derived from the liberal education ideal of their time. The missionary experience was formative for Americans and Chinese alike, partly because they shared the belief that education should produce moral leadership. The mission impulse was also decisive in forming modern concepts of cultural diplomacy and international exchange.
MISSIONARY QUALIFACATIONS
The mission field is not the place for the visionary, the crank, the mere enthusiast. -ARTHUR J. BROWN, Protestant missionary
Recruiters for the SVM appealed to both the hearts and minds of American college students with a mixture of emotion and idealism wrapped up in the rhetoric of religion. "In the popular culture," John Hersey wrote in his novel The Call, "missionaries were heroic figures: workers in exotic vineyards, civilizers of the heathen, and all too often bloodied martyrs."
The case for becoming a Christian missionary was reinforced through the activities of local SVM campus committees (called "bands"), inspirational talks by visiting missionaries, SVM organizers (traveling secretaries), pamphlets, periodicals, and books about mission history, biographies of missionaries, and quadrennial national SVM conventions attended by thousands-in Cleveland (1898), Toronto (1902), Nashville (1906), Rochester (1910), and Kansas City (1914). There was an air of romance, adventure, and sacrifice about the mission movement that numerous American students found irresistible. Yet leaders of the SVM, which served as a major recruiting agency for the mainline denominations (primarily the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, and Episcopal churches), went out of their way to avoid zealots, bigots, and fanatics. As Martha Smalley has noted, "There were far more recruits than positions to be filled but the SVM justified its continued recruiting activity on the grounds that a wider pool for the boards to select from would result in more highly qualified missionaries."
The criteria for becoming a missionary outlined in Protestant handbooks, applications, and literature emphasized a capacity for breadth and leadership as well as a range of knowledge and intellectual skills. According to the 1891 Manual for Missionary Candidates, published by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the traits deemed "indispensable for all candidates" included "[a]n unimpaired physical constitution; good intellectual ability, well disciplined by education, and if possible by practical experience; good sense; sound judgment of men and things; versatility, tact, adaptation to men of all classes and circumstances-'sanctified common sense'; a cheerful, hopeful spirit; ability to work pleasantly with others; persistent energy in the carrying out of plans once begun:-all controlled by a single, self-sacrificing devotion to Christ and his cause." The manual added, "Mental powers and attainments of the highest order, executive ability and capacity for organizing and superintending, find ample scope in the missionary fields. Power in public address is as desirable and as useful in the work abroad as at home." Also, "facility in acquiring a foreign tongue is a valuable qualification."
Henry Jessup, a missionary to Syria, wrote an SVM pamphlet in 1895 about those who should not become foreign missionaries, listing twelve classes of men-referring to both men and women-"who will be justified in remaining at home," including (1) those in infirm health, (2) those too old to learn a foreign language, (3) anyone unwilling to go anywhere, (4) those pessimists who believe the missionary enterprise is doomed to failure, (5) impatient men, (6) men without common sense, (7) intractable men, (8) superficially prepared men, (9) men of unsettled religious views, (10) men who are afraid of torrid climates and hard languages, (11) men who hesitate to condescend to the lowly, depraved, and besotted, and lastly, (12) men who think of the missionary work as a temporary service, or a convenient way of serving themselves. "No one can predict what duties may devolve on a foreign missionary: Bible translation, organization of churches, the moulding of a new native Christian social fabric, dealing with subtle philosophies, preparing a Christian literature, founding institutions of learning, and perhaps a whole educational system, guiding the ignorant, and often-time dealing with kings and rulers.... The most complete all-round, theological or medical training is the best preparation for the foreign missionary work." To this should be added, experience in personal Christian work in the cities or the country.
The SVM literature consistently underscored the requirement for well-educated, highly competent candidates. The prominent Arthur Judson Brown wrote in 1907 that the missionary "must be a leader and organizer. Mere piety will not make a missionary, any more than mere patriotism will make an ambassador. The [mission] boards lay stress on energy, initiative and self-reliance." Common sense was also called for since "the foreign missionary must deal with a variety of problems and conditions that call for the practical man.... The mission field is not the place for the visionary, the crank, the mere enthusiast." Brown pointedly remarked that "the youth who wants to see strange lands and peoples or who is animated by the spirit of adventure, [is] not wanted. Missionary work in all its forms is distinctly spiritual in spirit and aim." J. D. DeForest, a missionary to Japan, opined in 1896, "Such peoples [as those in Japan and China] should have missionaries of the broadest culture. Not that it is impossible for an occasional man or woman of limited intellectual attainments to develop into a splendid missionary, but such are rare exceptions.... He should have some knowledge of international law.... The missionary of to-day should understand comparative religion.... The missionary cannot afford to ignore evolutionary philosophy, new historical knowledge or advances in psychology."
A premium was placed on what we would now describe as critical thinking. As Robert Speer, one of the most prominent SVM leaders, put it, "The mission work demands thought and study and the faculty of decision and determination on the basis of facts examined and conditions understood. The missionary candidate must learn how to use his mind, delivering it of all fancies and caprices." Declared another advocate, "The missionary should be a well-read, well-equipped, 'all-round' man, obtaining all the knowledge he can on all subjects. History, science, philosophy, psychology, mathematics, languages, poetry, travel, geography, art, mechanics-everything that will come into use on the missionary field. Fiction even, should not be entirely avoided, but it should be utilized judiciously, temperately."
The study of foreign languages received some attention. George Scholl wrote in 1902, "I would say ... that if you make any one part of the college course your major, let it be the study of the language." Then he went on to argue that the most desirable traits were those of the accomplished generalist:
You must not, however, make the mistake of supposing that because you are a missionary candidate you must at once begin to specialize.... It seems to me that if there is any calling in life in the successful prosecution of which a full, all-round and harmonious development of all the powers and faculties of the mind are needed, it is here. You are to be a preacher of the gospel, and this in itself calls for the exercise of the highest and best powers, the possession of the deepest, broadest, ripest scholarship of which you are capable.... You will be called upon wisely and harmoniously to adjust yourself to the government of the country among whose people you reside. You will need to be a philosopher, a statesman, a financier, a diplomat.... You will often be called upon to decide questions-and to decide them promptly-of far-reaching importance, the right determination of which require the exercise of a discriminating and well-balanced judgment.
A steadfast commitment to Protestant Christian doctrine was essential for joining the SVM, but the energy, intelligence, enthusiasm, and idealism of youth were the driving force behind the movement-much like the driving force of the U.S. Peace Corps when it was established in the 1960s.
MISSIONARY MOTIVES
The noblest and grandest thing one could do. -SVM applicant
How did American college students interpret the call to rescue the "unenlightened" cultures of the world, and to what extent do the SVM applications reflect the broad vision for "well-read, well-equipped, 'all-round' " candidates outlined in the recruitment literature? What doubts or misgivings did students have? What did they envision themselves doing as missionaries? Do their statements reflect an awareness of the cultural complexities and assumptions behind the decision to become missionaries? In what ways did they represent the American mainstream culture of their day?
The SVM application filled out by every missionary candidate listed a series of background questions, including "When, and under what influence did you first seriously consider becoming a foreign missionary?" and "When, and under what influence did you finally form the purpose to become a foreign missionary?" (See Appendix 1 for the questions included on the 1911 form.) Many of the responses showed a degree of confusion and uncertainty: "Here is my position: I can not tell or know for certain that my calling is to be a missionary. I have given my own consent, and feel it a duty of mine to go to the Foreign Fields and am preparing myself to go if it be God's will. I will take my Theological Course at Vanderbilt; haven't decided where I shall take my Medical Course. Do you think it a good idea to be both preacher and physician?" Quite a few agonized over their decisions: "As I was quietly thinking of my past and future a feeling came over me that [perhaps] I ought to go but I did not think of it again for a few weeks, then in May the call became more vital and it took the whole summer[']s thought to really decide. In August I decided that I would do what ever seemed best, I could not decide whether God needed me most here or in the foreign field, and so after much prayer I decided that I would go."
A minority, particularly those who were the children of missionaries or ministers, expressed no doubts at all. One of these responded to the question about when she was first influenced, "I do not know, as I cannot remember the time that I did not want to be a missionary. My Father is a minister, but was too old to go to the Mission Field when converted. So I came to College with the purpose of being his representative on the Mission Field." "One of the strongest influences was the fact that my mother had wanted to become a missionary and could not," wrote another pastor's daughter. "I have seen the need, how could I help but go?" declared a student from Brooklyn.
Students often were swayed by inspirational talks given by missionaries on home leave. After attending a YMCA convention one young man recalled, "I was somewhat awakened to realization of duty, and by hearing old Missionaries talk I have been led to believe there is grand opportunity to serve my master's call (Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel) in Missions." An Illinois woman recalled, "When I was fourteen years old I heard a missionary talk which led me to consider this vocation as ideal.... After leaving high school I drifted first into the teaching profession and then into business partly because I lacked funds to complete my education and partly because I had lost my nerve thru disappointments in my work. The influence of these experiences showed me not only my own weakness but some of the great needs of the world." A student from Kansas wrote, "I think it was the appeals given by the foreign missionaries when they told of conditions in foreign lands that influenced me the most." One Pennsylvania student remembered from her childhood a returned missionary who "had a very small Chinese girl with her who had been left at her door and she took her to raise as a Christian girl. This child sang 'Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.'"
For a number of volunteers the decision to become a missionary was an emotional experience akin to religious conversion. A public school teacher in Colorado wrote,
I believe that 'Go Ye' was meant for every Christian unless God called especially to remain at home, and until this fall I was positive that was my place.... On the morning of April 4, 1912, after more than a month's terrible fighting of what I knew was God's purpose I signed the [SVM] card in the presence of my class while they wondered why I did not begin the lesson. The doubts as to God, the lost faith, etc, vanished. And I wanted to tell everyone. No one urged or spoke to me except in a general way. But several were praying. It was a question of yielding to God's call or losing my religious experience.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from China's Christian Colleges by Daniel H. Bays Ellen Widmer Copyright © 2009 by Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission.
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Table of Contents
Figures and Tables ix
Contributors xi
Preface: China's Christian Colleges as Cross-Cultural Ventures xv
Acknowledgments xxi
Part 1 "The Call": The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions 1
1 The SVM and Transformation of the Protestant Mission to China Terrill E. Lautz 3
Part 2 Foundations of the College Enterprise 23
2 American Geometries and the Architecture of Christian Campuses in China Jeffrey W. Cody 27
3 Science, Religion, and the Classics in Christian Higher Education to 1920 Ryan Dunch 57
4 The Seven Sisters and China, 1900-1950 Ellen Widmer 83
Part 3 Curriculum and Careers 103
5 Liberal Arts Education in English and Campus Culture at St. John's University Edward Yihua Xu 107
6 The Professionalization of Chinese Domesticity: Ava B. Milam and Home Economics at Yenching University Helen Schneider 125
7 Anglo-American Law at Soochow University Alison W. Conner 147
8 From Lingnan to Pomona: Charles K. Edmunds and His Chinese American Career Dong Wang 173
Part 4 Wider Ramifications 189
9 National Salvation: Teaching Civic Duty in China's Christian Colleges Susan Rigdon 193
10 Same Bed, Different Dreams: The American Postwar Plan for China's Christian Colleges, 1943-1946 Jiafeng Liu 218
11 China's Christian Colleges and the Founding of the Harvard-Yenching Institute Paul Daniel Waite Peichi Tung Waite 241
Part 5 Beyond China 267
12 A Japanese American Enterprise: Umeko Tsuda's Bryn Mawr Network and the Founding of Tsuda College Yuko Takahashi 271
13 Cyrus Hamlin in Turkey Ted Widmer 287
Postface: This Volume in the Context of Evolving International Scholarship 303
Notes 309
Bibliography 371
Index395