SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This study looks at the secular enterprises of the American Presbyterian missionaries in Weixian, Shandong, between its founding in 1883 and 1920. The ideas presented are important for both the studies of missions and social change in China. During the period covered by this study boarding and country schools for boys and girls were begun, and hospitals were built catering to the changing needs of medical care in the area. The station has been recognized as the most influential in the Shandong mission for these endeavors. It is therefore important to study how these institutions came into being and how they changed over this period. This thesis brings out many ideas that have never been fully explored at the station level in the Protestant missionary movement in China. The first among these is the increasing decision-making power of the foreign lay personnel in the station. These individuals took stronger control over the enterprises after 1900, which brought them into conflict with the evangelists over religious objectives. The conflict started with the move of the missionaries to make the mission's work more relevant to the Chinese situation. This idea will be explored in the analysis of in the curriculum of the schools and the itinerant medical care provided to the local population. It was one step towards the indigenization of the secular enterprises. A second step was the increased administrative power that the missionaries gave to the Chinese church members in the educational work, and the role that the assistants played in the success of the medical enterprise. In addition to supporting the station's enterprises, many of the Chinese educational workers, particularly the female teachers, and medical assistants left the employ of the station and took a leading role in developing the local area. Although many different ideas are brought out in this study, the guiding thread throughout is the development of cooperation in the missionary secular enterprises.