by Linda Banks
It was not till about 9.30am that seventy men had collected. The local catechist then offered prayer for God’s blessing on the undertaking, and the first medicine round was proceeded with … The general arrangement of the temple occupied by the opium patients was fairly convenient for our purpose … the front theatre-like half and the back temple half … separated from one another by a sort of courtyard open to the sky … In the recesses are three main idols. In the centre is the main idol of the village … shrouded from view by a sheet hinge in front … If the idol had had ears to hear, it might certainly have heard during these days many things to cause it disquiet, although our practice was not so much to talk against the idols as pouring out the positive side of God’s love and mercy through Christ.
Our patients consisted of seventy-eight men and five women. The men were accommodated in the temple and the women had quarters in the women’s station class building … The average age of the men I find was forty-five and of the women thirty-seven … It is interesting to look down the list of occupations of the men. Most, as one might expect, are tillers of the soil, but there are in addition, traders, two schoolmasters, three cooks, three barbers, the village constable, a woolgatherer, a goatherd, a mason, an opium shopkeeper, three men of no occupation, and two men of leisure … Why they began taking opium is also of interest … forty-five began to take it for pleasure, while the rest of the men and women for ailments, real or imaginary, of one kind or another. With regard to the length of time that opium had been taken, I find that the average term works out at about fourteen years in the case of the men and seven in that of the women …
With regard to the medicines used – they were mostly in the form of pills or tablets, containing as their most powerful ingredient opium or morphia combined with tonics and other substitutes. Our practice was to give them quantities graduated according to the amount previously eaten or smoked, for three or four days, and then gradually decrease the amount till the tonic was being taken. The medicines were always given under the most careful supervision …
Among other qualifications, some knowledge of human nature is needed. One patient needs to be commiserated, another needs to be joked with, while a third needs to be sat upon unmercifully. There is always, too, the patient who, whatever you give him, is always ‘like Oliver, asking for more.’
We attempt to make an impression upon the moral and spiritual nature of these men in three ways: (i) by preaching, (ii) lantern lectures, (iii) the distribution of literature. The preaching was done at [non-compulsory] regular morning and evening services before the medicines were given round. We had altogether four lantern lectures in the temple when … quite a crowd of village people assembled … With regard to the literature, we gave each man to begin with a sheet containing on one side the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, Creed and the Golden Rule, and on the other two hymns, viz., ‘Jesus loves me’ and ‘There is a happy land’. Copies of St John’s Gospel, attractively got up and illustrated … were freely distributed.11
院書光靈
After Chinese New Year 1910, Amy was approached by government officials in Fukien to consider displaying the work of the Blind School at the Nanking Exhibition to be held in May. This was a tremendous honour and quite rare for an institution working with the disabled. It was China’s first official world fair and was designed to showcase the country’s growing agricultural, economic, technological and cultural development. Occupying an area of 140 hectares, with buildings for various provinces, including Fukien, it provided displays of farm machinery, industrial crafts, transportation, education, health and the arts. On display over the six-month period were more than one million commercial items. The importance of this event was summed up in the following way:
The Nanking Exhibition drew extensive attention to people throughout the Chinese Society and attracted many high profile merchants, scholars and Government officials to attend. There were large delegations from Japan, the United States, Germany, and residents from Southeast Asia. It is estimated that over 300,000 people visited. Trades during the Exhibition were worth tens of millions of dollars. At the time, people considered it a great event in 5,000 years of Chinese history.12
In the summer, Captain Wong of Foochow undertook to pay and care for the whole trip. Ling Kai and four other blind boys, representing Fukien Province, travelled to Nanking. The results of this opportunity were everything Amy had worked so hard to achieve – presenting the school on the national stage of educational and industrial innovation.
One boy [Ling Kai] obtained the White Button, which means a literary degree: others received a gold medal and certificates from the Viceroy of Foochow and from the official of the Nanking Exhibition. The boy who gained [it] is very bright and clever. He has written out all the New Testament in Braille … he is very musical and can speak … a fair amount of English. The other boys who have received the gold medals and certificates are also bright lads and will, we hope, be of great help in the future development of the School … The certificates are beautifully harmonised and attractive … These were presented by the Vice-President of the Board of Industry … Mrs Wilkinson, the founder of the Blind School in Foochow city has taught diligently and carefully the Blind boys to learn their lessons and to make articles. The School owes it success to the great and liberal help of Mrs Wilkinson.13
The recognition gained through the Nanking Exhibition opened up many more opportunities for the school and especially for the Blind Boys Band. It was increasingly called upon to play at civic, church and interdenominational functions, and invitations arrived from all over the Fukien Province, even as far away as Shanghai. Amy provides an insight into what was involved in travelling with the boys to such places.
There is great excitement in the blind school compound. Twelve blind boys from the school have been invited by the Chinese members of the Y.M.C.A. to take their band up to Inghok for the annual meeting. Bed quilts are folded up; baskets are packed with soap, facecloth, toothbrush, comb, oil for the hair, and extra clothes in case it is cold. The band instruments – not forgetting the organ, the kettle-drum, and the drum – are got ready; and all have to be made into loads, each weighing not more than 40 lb., so that a coolie can carry two loads, one on each end of a bamboo pole put across his shoulder.
Bang bang! at the compound door, and in come the sedan chairs with twenty-four chair coolies, each talking at the top of his voice and running about trying to grab hold of the smallest and lightest boy to carry. Poor Dai Ming, the cornet boy, is always last. He has grown so tall, but he smiles and speaks nicely, and in the end he is seated.
The next excitement is getting on board the boat. What a job it is to get comfortably seated, packed as tight as sardines in a box! But oh! the fun of it all. Off we start, and before very long we are hungry, so the cook prepares the rice in one pot and fries the pork and vegetables in boiling oil in the other. The smell of it makes your mouth water, and how delicious it is.
The night comes on. Quilts are unpacked, and preparations made for bed. But first we sing some hymns. On either side is the beautiful river; above thousands of stars shine in the clear sky. Not far off is a village, and you can hear ‘Knock, knock, knock’. Someone is sick, and the Buddhist priest has been sent for to repeat prayers to the Buddha and is calling upon the idols for help. But these boys have souls lighted from on high, and they sing hymn after hymn, praising the one true God, and it is beautiful to hear their voices – bass, tenor, baritone – sing; ‘Crown Him, crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.’ We read the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter crying: ‘Lord, save me!’
At dawn we awake to find that we are getting near the rapids. Out jump the crew, leaving open the steersman holding on to his long oar. Men, women, boys, girls are waiting on the shore for a job, and soon they are all pulling the long towing boat with all their strength, sometimes with hands on the ground as well as feet. At last we have ascended the rapids. It is thrilling! If the rope broke the boat w
ould be tossed back into the rushing waters and smashed to pieces on the rocks.
All day long, on either side, as we go up the river, are glorious wooden hills covered with dark green fir trees, light green feathery bamboos, scarlet and most beautiful coloured-leaved trees, for it is autumn. The sky is deep blue and the warm sun is shining. I see all these lovely things, but my band boys are blind; not one thing can they see. But there is never a word of complaint; they talk and sing and joke and tell stories. Why? Because they can say: ‘I am so glad that Jesus loves me, even me!’
5.3 Amy and Band on tour, c. 1909.
Such a welcome we get in Inghok! Firecrackers by the thousand are let off and dozens of boys are each anxious to have the honour of leading about a blind band boy. The inhabitants look and look and wonder, and the excitement is great when the band begins to play.
One, two, three, four, beats on the big drum, and a burst of sound, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. Soon the hundreds assembled to hear are catching the rhythm of the music and want the band to play on and on. But the literary men are longing to see and hear the boys read the Chinese classics, and then to write. To the scholars the Braille are ‘magic dots’. They wonder why the ‘foreign child’ troubles to teach these things to blind boys, and we say; ‘The one true God, the heavenly Father, has sent us’. He is Love.14
In the midst of the school’s success, in September 1910 came the sad news that Amy’s mother Harriet had died suddenly. She was buried next to her husband John Norton in the family plot at Cobbitty. In her grieving, Amy was grateful that she had been able to introduce George and Isabel to her in Sydney and enjoy the time they had spent together in Aunt Lizzie’s home.
George saw the fruit of much patient effort in 1910. The opening of the long-awaited new outpatients building on 9 October was a ‘red-letter day’. Attenders included the vice-president of the Provincial Assembly, representatives from the foreign settlement, doctors and staff. In the lead-up time to the ceremony, some boys from the Blind School played a variety of English, Scottish and Irish airs on the violin, cornet and organ. After a hymn and a reading, the bishop and the American consul gave addresses on the importance of medical missionary work in China.15
A second major development for George that year was final preparations for the founding of the Medical Union College, a joint venture by Anglicans, Congregationalists and Methodists for the training of doctors. The official opening took place early in 1911 when Dr van Someren Taylor was made its founding principal. George continued to teach courses to the small but growing number of Chinese medical students.
By July, Isabel’s indifferent health took a decided turn for the worse and both Amy and George knew she needed treatment beyond what was available in China. Despite their busy schedules, they decided that Amy should take her to England to seek more specialised medical help. On arrival, CMS gave them great support and practical help. We do not know the outcome of the diagnosis and treatment, but Isabel’s condition eventually improved. While she was in England, Amy learned that a Triennial International Conference on the Blind had been held in Exeter shortly before she arrived. Disappointed at missing out on the opportunity to meet with like-minded professionals on the leading edge of blind education from all over the world, she resolved to attend the next time it was held.
Back in China, during the last three months of 1911 events moved suddenly and quickly towards a political revolution.
The revolution began with a minor uprising in military barracks in Wuching that unexpectedly opened the door to the fall of the Qing dynasty. When, from exile in America, Sun Yat Sen heard that this military rebellion against the imperial government had been successful, he immediately returned from abroad. Meeting little resistance, the rebellion soon expanded to other centres in the country. In early November, revolutionaries staged an uprising in Foochow not far from the North Gate that led to an overnight street battle resulting in the surrender of the Qing forces. A few days before Christmas, these regional insurrections culminated in the so-called Xinhai Revolution which led to the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor. Several days later, Sun Yat Sen was elected provisional president in Nanking.
On 1 January 1912, China was enthusiastically declared a republic and the capital moved to Nanking.16 While the authorities in Foochow supported the new republic, some soldiers of the old regime caused disturbances in the city. Though these threatened Christian institutions, supporters of the new republic were able to protect them. When news reached England about the uprisings in China, it initially delayed Amy’s return to Foochow, but by December she and Isabel were finally on their way home.
In March, two months after the declaration of the republic, Sun Yat Sen stood down in favour of Yuan Shikai, to whom he had promised the presidency if he succeeded in brokering the surrender of the last Qing supporters. Shortly afterwards, Sun Yat Sen formed the Kuomintang, the National People’s Party, as a step towards setting up a fully elected democratic system in China. However, elements of resistance to the republic remained. In Foochow, a bomb explosion threatened the life of a new civil governor and counter-revolutionary plots continued to circulate. At one point the school was threatened, and a wealthy man in the city, not a Christian, offered to take all the boys into his home until the unrest was over.17 Later in the year, Sun Yat Sen himself visited Foochow to thank supporters of the new republic there. Since George was now the supervisor of medical work in the city, most likely he and Amy met the distinguished visitor at one of the gatherings in his honour.18
院書光靈
The new central government quickly set about instituting a number of key reforms, in Foochow as well as elsewhere, such as building new medical facilities and new day and boarding schools for girls as well as boys. Amy’s blind school also continued to grow. By 1913 there were nearly 80 boys in the school. At home, the health of Isabel, now eight, had markedly improved. On Saturday 29 March, the blind school had a red-letter day. A particular honour was the installation of its very first student, Ling Kai, to Mandarin status for his scholarly efforts in translating significant writings into Braille and for his long-proven teaching abilities. Thirteen older boys also formally graduated from the school.19 As one long-serving missionary wrote about the occasion,
Yesterday I attended the first graduating exercises of the Blind School under Mrs Wilkinson’s care. They were of an unusually high quality … one boy sang ‘Must I go empty-handed’ ‘very sweet’. A quartet sang ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ in Chinese very well indeed. Two boys played the cornet, two the violin and they sang as a chorus ‘Hallelujah’. 20
A few weeks later, on 27 April, churches held a national day of prayer instituted by the new government. The decree ordered: ‘Let us all take part. Representatives of the provincial authorities are requested to attend the services which will be sincerely carried out by the entire Chinese and Christian forces of the nation.’
This took place exactly 100 years after a Chinese imperial edict declaring that that the chief foreigner responsible for public preaching and private printing of books ‘to pervert the multitude’ would be executed.21
Later that year, Amy received an invitation to address the next Triennial International Conference on the Blind in June 1914 at Westminster in London. The topic for this occasion was ‘The Exhibition of the Arts and Industries of the Blind’. This was on an unprecedented scale, with a large and varied assortment of artifacts connected with blindness brought together in one place. Sighted and non-sighted delegates came from all around the world and included the blind American educator and activist, Helen Keller, as well as blind school educators from Australia.
5.4 Amy teaching blind boys about balance, using the seesaw.
5.5 Boys at the Blind School matting and weaving.
Early in the conference, Amy spoke briefly about what was involved in adapting Braille to the Fukien dialect, illustrating this with a number of practical examples.22 Her main address began by recounting the school’s beginnings in Den
g Doi and its transfer to Foochow. She also traced its development from ambivalent responses among local people to high appreciation by national authorities at the Nanking Exhibition. She then took them on a tour of the Blind School itself by lantern slides. This was her most detailed description to date of its premises, activities, schedule and needs, and also foreshadowed something of her future plans:
A small gate in the thick mud wall admits us to the large, much-used playground. In front of us is a lovely banyan tree, beneath the shady branches of which the boys can sit and rest. We turn to the left and, walking through a covered verandah, come to the teachers’ room, next to which is an airy schoolroom with one side completely open. Here we are greeted by a blind teacher, a lad whose intelligent face would single him out wherever you might meet him.
He is engaged in teaching a class of eight little boys, and one of these justifies the remark I made, that terrible indeed, sometimes, is the lot of the Chinese blind. This little fellow comes from Singapore, and, to avoid the cost of his rice, his own father tied him up in the jungle in the hope that some wild animal would relieve him of their parental responsibilities. On the same form sits another boy whose home was in the North-West Province. Being blind, and therefore useless, his father buried him alive, but the neighbours saved his life by digging him up again. The pale-faced boy near him was brought to the school a virtual skeleton – an open sore on his head and a bruise on his face. He was unable to speak or to sit up, but just lay moaning on the ground.