THE CULTURAL CONTRIBUTION OF BRITISH PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES TO CHINA'S NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE 1920s b y CUI DAN, B.A., M.A. (NANKAI UNIVERSITY OF CHINA) SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (L.S.E.), UNIVERSITY OF LONDON UMI Number: U615B62 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615B62 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Library British Library of Political and Economic Science ABSTRACT: During the period 1920-1930, British Protestant missionaries engaged in many cultural activities in China. This study is designed to analyze their special role in China's national development and modernization. The opening chapter mainly introduces the significance of the missionary social gospel and describes its theological tenets. It also examines the origins of the movement for cooperation among the Protestant missions and the features of the main British missions. The thesis then turns to the areas in which the missions displayed their leading social concerns, deriving from their policies. Chapters 2 & 3 describe the major contributions of the missionary medical services, analysing both primary medical work (direct medical care) and secondary medical work (education, research, translations and publications, public health). During the 1920s the Protestant missions were the most important force in medicine in China. Chapter 4 assesses the educational activities of British missionaries and their importance in the circumstances of China in the 1920s in triggering and moulding social change. Above all, the missionaries helped China to perfect her modem educational system and to understand Western learning and culture to much higher standards than previously. The following two chapters analyse the missionaries' role as social welfare workers and social reformers. Their work in this field included popular education, moral welfare, industrial welfare, famine relief, and rural reform, and constituted one of the most outstanding episodes in mission cultural activities. Chapter 7 discusses the British missionaries' influence in the movement of Chinese women's emancipation. In the 1920s many ordinary Chinese women, who had been untouched by the Revolution of 1911, were mobilized by missionary women's work. In contradiction to many traditional accounts, especially those of Chinese scholars, the final chapter assesses the positive cultural achievements of the Protestant missionaries and their unique role in promoting China1 s progress and modernization. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to the people who helped me unearth the facts that are necessary foundation of this study. Various Christian and other organisations as well as many individuals have been generous and kind enough to help me collect materials and read parts of the manuscript. In particular I received great help from the China Department of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, China Group of the Church of Scotland, Overseas Board of the Presbyterian Church of in Ireland, Religious Society of Friends, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, and the Great Britain and China Centre. I would also like to express my personal appreciation to Margaret Allen, Robert A. Bickers, Norman Cliff, Mary Findlay, I. Garven, Margaret E. Garvie, Kay and Tom Hauthorn, George Hood, Alan Hunter, Jill Hughes, J.T.T. McMullan, Francesca Rhys, Carl Smith, Edmond Tang, Philip and Mrs. Wickeri, and Bob Whyte. CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: THE SOCIAL GOSPEL & BRITISH MISSIONS IN CHINA IN THE 192 OS Page 1 I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE EXISTING STATE OF RESEARCH 4 III. THE SOCIAL GOSPEL 7 IV. THE POLICY OF INTER-MISSIONARY COOPERATION 24 V. FEATURES OF THE MAIN BRITISH MISSIONS 31 CHAPTER 2: MEDICAL SERVICES (1) 34 INTRODUCTION 34 I. DIRECT MEDICAL CARE 36 CHAPTER 3: MEDICAL SERVICES (2) 78 II. MEDICAL EDUCATION 78 III. PUBLIC HEALTH 103 IV. CONCLUSION 111 CHAPTER 4: EDUCATION 118 INTRODUCTION 118 I. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 120 II. SECONDARY EDUCATION 126 III. HIGHER EDUCATION 135 IV. EDUCATIONAL DEVOLUTION 144 V. PROGRESS AND LIMITATIONS 156 CHAPTER 5: SOCIAL REFORM (1) - POPULAR EDUCATION, MORAL & INDUSTRIAL WELFARE 166 INTRODUCTION 166 I. POPULAR EDUCATION 168 II. MORAL REFORM 188 III. INDUSTRIAL WELFARE 199 CHAPTER 6: SOCIAL REFORM (2) - THE PROBLEMS OF FAMINE & RURAL SOCIETY 216 IV. FAMINE RELIEF 216 V. RURAL IMPROVEMENT 228 VI. INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL REFORM 244 CHAPTER 7: THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 247 INTRODUCTION 247 I. REFORMING SOCIAL CUSTOMS 250 II. FEMALE EDUCATION 259 III. SOCIAL INFLUENCE 268 CHAPTER 8: PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES & CULTURAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN CHINA & THE WESTIN THE 1920S 277 BIBLIOGRAPHY 284 APPENDIX 303 I t a b l e s Table 2.1 The Statistics of Dispensaries of Major British Missions in 1920 Table 2.2 The Hospitals of British Missions in 1920 Table 2.3 Medical Staff Allocation of MainBritish Missions & their Chinese Medical Staff in 1920 Table 2.4 The Medical Work of the MMH Table 2.5 The PCI Women's Medical Work Table 2.6 The Self-funded Medical Work of Major British Missions in the 1920s Table 2.7 A Comparison between British & American Missionary Medical Enterprises Table 2.8 The Regional Distribution of the Medical Enterprises Run by Protestant Christian Churches in the World (1935-36) Table 3.1 The Progress & Development of Mission Nursing Work Table 4.1 The Primary Schools & Pupils of Main British Missions in 1920 Table 4.2 Primary School Teaching Staff of Main British Missions in 1920 Table 4.3 The Secondary Educational Statistics of Main British Missions in 1920 Table 4.4 A Comparison between Government & Christian Schools in 1922 Table 5.1 The Social Work Departments of the NCC ABBREVIATIONS ABCFM: American Board Ccnnmissioners of Foreign Mission ABM: American Board Mission ABF: American Baptist Foreign Mission ACC: Anglo-Chinese College ACM: American Church Mission BB&TD: Bible, Book, and Tract Depot BCMS: Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society BFBS: British and Foreign Bible Society BMS: Baptist Missionary Society GBM: Church of the Brethren Mission CBMS: Conference of British Missionary Societies CCC: China Continuation Committee CCEA: China Christian Educational Association CEZMS: Church of England Zenana Mission CHE: Council on Higher Education C(P)HE: Council on (Public) Health Education Cl: Chefoo Industrial Mission CIFRC: China International Famine Relief Commission CIM: China Inland Mission CLS: Christian Literature Society for China CM: Christians' Mission CMA: China Medical Association CMMA: China Medical Missionary Association CMML: Christian Missions in Many Lands CMS: Church Missionary Society CSFM: Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee DLS: Danish Lutheran Mission DUFM: Dublin University Fukien Mission EMM: Emmanuel Medical Mission EMMS: Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society EPM: English Presbyterian Mission FFMA: Friends Foreign Mission Association (After 1927, FSC: Friends Service Council) IPTCA: International Postal Telegraph Christian Association IMMS: London Medical Missionary Society LMS: London Missionary Society MEFB: Board of Foreign Missions Methodist Episcopal Church ME(F)S: Southern Methodist (Foreign) Mission MAC: Nurses' Association of China NAQA: National Anti-Opium Association NBSS: National Bible Society of Scotland NCC: National Christian Council NKM: Northwest Kiangsi Mission. NMA: National Medical Association PCI: Presbyterian Church in Ireland PMCJ: Pentecostal Missionary Union PN: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. PS: Executive Committee for Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. RCA: Reformed Church in America RTS: Religious Tract Society in China SA: Salvation Army SPG: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel SVM: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions SYM: South Yunnan Mission TSM: Tsehchowfu Mission UCC: United Church of Canada Mission UFS: United Free Church of Scotland UMC: United Methodist Missionary Society WCM: Canadian Methodist Mission WMMS: Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society III CHAPTER 1: THE SOCIAL GOSPEL & BRITISH MISSIONS IN CHINA IN THE 1920S I. INTRODUCTION Tie object of this study is to offer a historical account/ tracing the stages by which Protestant missionaries continued to act as mediators of Western culture in China on a large and growing scale during the 1920s. It seeks to assess the relations between their cultural activities and China's national development and modernization and sheds light on the relations between the new cultural contribution of the missions and their developing social gospel. The original incentive to concentrate on such a subject is not only to document a generally neglected area of Sino-Westem relations hut also to gain insight into the nature of the British missionaries' contribution during this turbulent historical time. Much is known about the history of the anti-foreign and anti-Christian movements as both Chinese and Western historians