by Linda Banks
Chapter 3
1 This letter was written by Rev. S. Baring Gould, secretary of CMS in London. It, along with all the following letters without references, are drawn from Welch, Amy Oxley, viewed 2015 and 2016, and may be located in the chronological ordering of the correspondence.
2 Evening News, 22 December 1985, p. 4.
3 Evening News, 11 December 1895, p. 7.
4 The Scrutineer and Berrima District Press, 17 June 1896, p. 2.
5 In Welch, Amy Oxley, this piece of correspondence appears to be wrongly dated a year earlier.
6 ‘A Little Australian Colony in South China’, Bowral Free Press and Berrima District Intelligencer, 10 May 1900, p. 4.
7 For a brief account of Western and Chinese relationships in this period see G. Keen, A Short History of China, Pocket Essentials, Harpenden, 2–13, pp. 101– 11, and more fully in I.C.Y. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, 5th edn, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, pp. 262–352.
8 For southern China, see J.T. Lee, The Bible and the Gun: Christianity in South China 1860–1900, and on the opium trade and its consequences, J. Lovell, The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China, Picador, Sydney, 2011.
9 For a detailed description of foot-binding a very young girl, see the observant and delightful children’s book by F. Codrington, Bring-Brother, CEZMS, London, n.d., pp. 39–41. Further background on the practice is provided by S. Paddle, ‘To save the women of China from fear, opium and bound feet: Australian women missionaries in early twentieth-century China’, Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction, vol. 34, no. 3, 2010, pp. 67–82.
10 This, and the following, group of quotes are a composite drawn from materials in which Amy recounted her call to work with the blind, including a letter to Margaret Griffith, Welch, Amy Oxley, 6 April 1897 (actually 1898); The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 May 1900, pp. 36–8; The Soul-Lighted School of Foochow, Church Missionary Society, London, n.d. (likely written around 1915); A. Wilkinson, ‘School for Blind Boys, Foochow, China’, Report of the International Conference on the Blind and Exhibition of the Arts and Industries of the Blind, Westminster, London, 1914, pp. 216–17 and an article by her for the Berrima District Historical Society, written after 1923.
11 Of an estimated one million blind children presently in Asia, around 40% live in China. See ‘Blindness is a Public Health Issue in China’, www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs230/en/, viewed June 2016.
12 M. Miles, Disability and Dialogue in East Asia: Social and Educational Responses from Ancient to Recent Times, rev. edn 4.0, August 2007, www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles2, viewed February 2016.
13 For details of these quotes, see footnote 10. A brief account of the work of the blind school Amy visited near Amoy may be found in J. Johnston, China and Formosa: The Story of the Mission of the Presbyterian Church of England, Hazell, Watson & Viney, London, 1897, p. 258. In the brief self-published account by the Fuzhou Blind School of its development, Fu Zhou Shi Mang Xiao, 2010, p. 4, the place Amy rented in Deng Doi for its first home is described as a farmhouse.
14 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 March 1900, p. 36.
15 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 July 1898, p. 55.
16 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 November 1898, p. 84.
17 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 November 1899, pp.189–90.
18 The Bowral Free Press and Berrima District Intelligencer, New South Wales, 16 May 1900.
19 D. Preston, The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900, Berkley, New York, 2001.
20 For incidents in Fujian Province, see E. Stock, For Christ and Fuh-kien: The Story of the Fuh-kien Mission of the Church Missionary Society, Church Missionary Society, London, 1904, p. 37
21 More generally, Amy refers to her tiredness in letters to Isabel on 26 May 1899, 9 October 1899 and 16 February 1900.
Chapter 4
1 The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 28 July 1900, p. 4.
2 On Australian perceptions of, and dealings with, Asia during this whole period see the landmark study by David Walker, Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850–1939, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1999.
3 On the extent to which missionaries did this, see Bays, Christianity in China, p. 71.
4 The Camden News, 8 August 1901, p. 8.
5 The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 6 February 1901, p. 2.
6 The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 13 February 1901, p. 2.
7 W.H.H. Yarrington, The Blind Chinese Boy, Church Missionary Society, n.d. He was known for an award-winning poem on ‘Cook’s Meditating on Australia’s Future’, written for the opening of the Great Hall in Sydney University and read at the unveiling of the Captain Cook Memorial in the city.
8 The Brisbane Courier, 21 October 1901, p. 5.
9 77th Annual Report, NSW Church Missionary Association, 1902, p. 13.
10 See the article by Amy Wilkinson for the Berrima Historical Society, in Welch, Amy Oxley, referred to earlier.
11 See N. Grubb, C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer, Lutterworth, London, 1933, and on the group, J.C. Pollock, The Cambridge Seven, IVP, Leicester, 1966.
12 On the nature of the movement’s piety and its influence on mission, see R. Banks, ‘The Influence of the Keswick Movement on the Transmission of Christianity in China’, Lucas, March 2017, pp. 48–72.
13 See NSW CMA Report, 1902, pp. 12–13 and NSW CMA Report, 1903, p. 11.
14 Its literal meaning was something like ‘Spiritual Light Blind Study-School.’
15 See the photo and text in C. Roberts, Photography in China, Reaktion Books, London, 2013 pp. 48–50.
16 As reflected in the CMA Annual Report, 1899, pp. 372–6. By the mid 1890s, in a population of 20 million, there were only 16 Anglican missionaries in the province.
17 Letters to Isabel Hope, Cha Cang, 27 December 1901, 5 March 1902, 3 May 1902, 8 May 1902.
18 Letters written from Kuliang to Isabel Hope, 11 July, 3 August (2); Margaret Griffiths, 3 August; and Isabel Hope, 27 August 1902.
19 George Wilkinson, Extracts from Annual Reports 1902–1908, CMS, 6 December 1902, p. 621.
20 In its later The Sydney Industrial Blind Institution Newsletter, 18 November 1905, p. 6, this acknowledged the ‘well-known Sydney girl’ Amy Wilkinson for the work of her Blind School in an illustrated article wishing it ‘every success’ and expressing confidence in its being ‘warmly supported in the future by the charitable community of this country.’
21 Fu Zhou Shi Mang Xiao, p. 5.
22 From the slightly later NSW CMA Annual Report, 1904–5, p. 6.
23 Mrs Wilkinson, cited in ‘Extracts from Annual Reports, 1902–1906’, Church Missionary Society, p. 553, one of a few instances in which Amy was still treated as an official representative.
24 E. Stevens, Daybreak, April 1907 p. 25. On this institution, see ‘The Blind Girl’s School, Nantai, Foochow’, India’s Women and China’s Daughters, 1 September 1905, pp. 196–7.
25 Welch, Amy Oxley, from Cha Cang, 5 June 1903.
26 These developments are documented in citations from G. Wilkinson, and E.M. Baldwin in ‘Extracts from Annual Reports, 1902–1906’, Church Missionary Society, 1905, page unknown.
27 NSW Church Missionary Association Report, 1905–1906, p. 6 and 1906–1907, p. 9.
28 W.C. White, ‘Three Weeks with Opium Smokers in a Chinese Village’, The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, vol. 37, 1906, pp. 628–31. See further accounts by G. Wilkinson, ‘Extracts from Annual Reports, 1902–1906’, Church Missionary Society, pp. 410–11; The Straits Times, 24 November 1906, p. 8; and E. Reinders, Borrowed Gods and Foreign Bodies: Christian Missionaries Imagine Chinese Religion, UCA Press, Oakland, 2004, p. 51.
29 Mercy and Truth, 1 September 1907, pp. 280–4.
Chapter 5
1 See the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine website at www.lshtmnc.uk.
2 Mercy and Truth, May 1907, p. 131.
3 The Maitland Daily Mercury, 2 June 1908, p. 3.
4 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 30 June 1908, p. 101.
5 The Advertiser, 20 July 1908, p. 6.
6 The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 19 August 1908, p. 2.
7 On this period see Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, pp. 452–64, and more specifically, H.Z. Schiffrin, Sun Yat Sen and the Origins of the Chinese Revolution, UCA Press, Oakland, 2010.
8 R. Dunch, Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China 1857–1927, 2001, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2001, pp. 55, 65, 77–9, 82, 103, 155–65.
9 Everyday Tales of China, Church Missionary Society, London, n.d. (written shortly after 1911), pp. 44–7.
10 This was compiled mostly from George’s own words, who was the chief medical officer in the province. See also C.F. Harford, ‘The Climate of the CMS Mission Fields: XI Foochow’, Mercy and Truth, November 1909, pp. 56–9.
11 G. Wilkinson, ‘The Loan of an Idol Temple’, Mercy and Truth, October 1909, pp. 333–41. In his next official report, he noted that there had been a noticeable increase in spiritual response by patients, including ‘inveterate opium smokers’ (G. Wilkinson, Annual Report, July 1910, p. 245).
12 ‘An Overview of the Chinese Expositions During The Late Qing Dynasty – An Article Celebrating China’s First Ever World Expo’, Chinese Medal blogsite, www.chinesemedalblog.com, viewed July 2016.
13 As reported in ‘Blind Boy Medallists in Foochow’, The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 October 1912, p. 170. Amy’s more modest account of the event may be found in the CMS Home Gazette, November 1913, p. 343.
14 Eastward Ho, May 1922, pp. 51–3.
15 G. Wilkinson, Mercy and Truth, January 1911, pp. 15–17.
16 On this series of events see Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, pp. 465–74.
17 Mercy and Truth, July/August 1912, p. 140.
18 On the strong growth of Christianity from the Boxer Rebellion to the Nationalist Revolution, see Bays, A New History of Christianity, pp. 90–9.
19 CMS Home Gazette, November 1913, p. 343.
20 From the Willard L. Beard material in Yale Divinity School Library, library. yale.edu/divinitycontent/beard/Beard1913.pdf, viewed July 2016.
21 The Church Missionary Gleaner, June 1913, pp. 81–2.
22 A. Wilkinson, International Conference on the Blind, pp. 216–17.
23 Ibid., pp. 445–9.
24 CMS Home Gazette, 1 September 1914, p. 286.
Chapter 6
1 This news was strongly regretted by the organisers of the Centenary and family members in Australia were naturally disappointed. See The Maitland Mercury, 7 December 1914, p. 3.
2 Ma Min & Ai Xianfeng, Zhang Jian and the World Exposition in the Early Years of the 20th Century: An Inter-Cultural Historical Observation, Huazhong Normal University, China, http://www.princeton.edu/~collcutt/doc/MaMin_English.pdf, p. 4, viewed August 2016, and The Daily Mercury, 7 December 1914, p. 3.
3 See the Atlantic Transport Line website at http://www.atlantictransportline.us/content/45Mongolia.htm, viewed July 2016, though by the time Amy sailed on the ship it was operated by the Pacific Steamship Company.
4 Letter of Dr George Wilkinson from the CMS Hospital in Foochow, December 1917, p. 4 in the G. Wilkinson Collection, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.
5 See the comments of Rev. L. Lloyd in The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1915, p. 110.
6 Mercy and Truth, 1 September 1916, pp. 202–4.
7 G. Wilkinson, ‘Facts from Foochow’, Annual Letter to Supporters, December 1916, pp. 1–4 (G. Wilkinson Collection).
8 Mercy and Truth, 1 July 1916 p. 125.
9 December 1917, pp. 1–8 (G. Wilkinson Collection).
10 Outlook for the Blind, vol. 10, Spring 1917, pp. 4, 42–4.
11 This finally appeared under that name and was published by CMS around 1920. The only surviving edition is undated but seems to have appeared in or after 1923.
12 Wilkinson, Soul-Lighted School, pp. 2–3.
13 Ibid., pp. 4–6.
14 Ibid., pp. 6–11.
15 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 2 July 1917, p. 71.
16 Welch, Amy Oxley, Appendix 2.
17 SMH, 4 August 1918, p. 13.
18 The Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser, 26 August 1918, p. 4.
19 The Daily Sun, 28 August 1918, p. 4.
20 SMH, 5 September 1918, p. 3.
21 The Tamworth Daily Observer, 5 September 1918, p. 5.
22 A Summer in Foochow City’, 1918, pp. 6–7 (G. Wilkinson Collection).
23 Ibid., pp. 1–2.
24 Ibid., p. 5.
25 G. Wilkinson, ‘Letter to Supporters’, December 1919, p. 1, and for other information on the year’s activities, pp. 2–14 (G. Wilkinson Collection). See also his article written the same year on ‘Cases of Abdominal Surgery’, The China Medical Journal, January 1920, pp. 1–6.
26 This was to Emily Hartwell of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions that year. She was recognised for her work in education, notably industrial schools and orphanages.
27 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 April 1920, p. 87.
28 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 September 1919, p. 124.
29 The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1 November 1920, p. 245.
30 Welch, Amy Oxley, three-page item preceding Appendix 1.
31 Wilkinson, Soul-Lighted School, p. 5.
32 The Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser, 16 July 1920, p. 2.
Chapter 7
1 Minutes of Fukien Conference, February 1921 (G. Wilkinson Collection).
2 The Straits Times, 6 June 1922, p. 10.
3 A Souvenir of ‘Africa and the East’ CMS Exhibition, Agricultural Hall, 17 May to 15 June.
4 The Children’s Newspaper, 3 June 1922, p. 2, reported in ‘Look and Learn Magazine’, www.lookandlearn.com, viewed November 2015.
5 T.M. Guage, ‘A Remarkable Missionary Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall’, United Methodist, May 1922, p. 248.
6 This was reported in The Daily Express, 31 July 1922, as well as the Church Missionary Outlook, July 1922, p. 149.
7 Both documents are in the G. Wilkinson Collection.
8 The Dover Express, 21 July 1922, p. 14.
9 Spontaneous contributions from audiences were not uncommon at this time, even in large gatherings.
10 Church Missionary Outlook, 1 March 1923, p. 60.
11 Ibid., p. 56.
12 See further the reports in The Sun, 31 October 1924, p. 14, and The Register, 15 September 1924, p. 12.
13 Daily Express (Griffith. NSW), 21 May 1927, p. 2.
14 The Sun, 29 January 1927, p. 1.
15 On these two incidents, see respectively The Straits Times, 4 February 1927, p. 10 (Singapore), and Evening News, 11 May 1927, p. 9 (Sydney). On the general growth and progress of the hospital around this time, see the report on ‘Foochow Medical Mission’ by long-standing staff member M.E. Baldwin in The Mission Hospital, November 1928, pp. 292–4.
16 The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 19 December 1930, p. 34.
17 ‘The Chinese in Britain (United Kingdom) History Timeline’, Zakkeith.com, viewed August 2015.
18 Wilkinson, for The Berrima Historical Society, unnumbered.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 This reminiscence was provided in a personal letter from Ruth Oxley Horne, Isabel’s granddaughter.
22 Church Missionary Outlook, December 1934, p. 8, and Eastward Ho, December 1933, p. 186. A few years later the School also received copies of the new hymn book for use in churches, as the second of these two magazines reported on p. 108 of its July 1937 issue.
23 The Singapore Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 29 May 1933, p. 12.
24 Suggestions were also being made about the need to standardise and professionalise teaching of the blind in China. See H.R. Wong,
And There Was Light, vol. 4, Forgotten Books, London, 1934, pp. 58ff.
25 See issues of the Church Missionary Outlook for October 1935, pp. 1–2 and March 1937, pp. 49–51 respectively.
26 Letter dated 29 September 1937 (Banks Family History Collection).
27 On this period see B. Hackett, ‘Rising Storm: The Imperial Japanese Navy and China’, www.combinedfleet.com/Fuzhou_t/htm, viewed May 2015.
28 These stories were passed on by his daughter Ruth Horne.
29 A report by Bishop Michael Chang was contained in The Church Missionary Outlook, October 1945, p. 3.
30 Fukien News, 4 November 1949, pp. 4–5. The Bible quotation is from Matthew 25:40.
31 This move was a result of the influence of Anglican bishop Ronald Hall of Hong Kong.
32 See the Church Missionary Outlook, July 1950, p. 8, and the Fukien News, November 1949, p. 10.
33 Church Missionary Outlook, December 1950, pp. 4–5.
Afterword
1 See further the brief history of the Blind School, Fu Zhou Shi Mang Xiao, 2010, especially pp. 10–11.
2 Revelation 21:1–5; 22:1–5.
Sources
The authors wish to thank the following individuals and organisations for permission to reproduce their material in this book:
A. & E. HOPE FAMILY COLLECTION: Figs 2.1, 2.2, 4.7, 5.1 and 5.2.
HAZELTON PRIVATE COLLECTION: Figs 3.3, 3.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.5, 7.2 and 7.5.
ROBERT AND LINDA BANKS FAMILY HISTORY COLLECTION: Figs 1.2, 1.4, 3.2, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, 5.5, 6.3, 6.4 and 7.3.
CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY AUSTRALIA ARCHIVES: Figs 2.3, 3.6, 4.6, 7.1 and frontispiece.
CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY BRITAIN ARCHIVES: Figs 4.5 and 5.3.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE ARCHIVES: Fig. 4.1.
DAVID M. RUBENSTEIN RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: Fig. 5.4.
Figures 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 2.4, 3.1 and 7.4 are public domain. The image used on the back cover and in Fig. 4.2 is from the collection of the Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University.
About the Authors
Over the last few years, Linda and Robert Banks have developed a close connection with Fujian Province in south-east China. Their joint book, View from the Faraway Pagoda: A Pioneer Australian Missionary in China from the Boxer Rebellion to the Communist Insurgency, began a journey of discovery about fascinating Australians who once lived and worked there. Linda has been a teacher, pastor and university chaplain. Robert has taught in universities and theological colleges and written several award-winning books. Together they enjoy travelling and serving in various locations, primarily in Asia and Australia.