Book Review: China's Christian Colleges: Cross-Cultural Connections, 1900-1950, ed. Daniel H. Bays; Ellen Widmer

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Cheung makes a stronger case, though, for viewing the riots as a watershed in
the political environment within Hong Kong, especially in regard to beginning the
processes which led to the negotiations for the return of Hong Kong. Confidential
archival documents allow Cheung to demonstrate that “the British government
realized after the 1967 riots that Hong Kong’s future eventually lay in China and
Britain’s objective must be to attempt to negotiate with Beijing the return of Hong
Kong at a favourable time in the future” (p. 140). The resolution of the conflict
also resulted in the initiation of contacts and discussions that would later form the
basis for the secret phase of the negotiations.
Hong Kong’s Watershed is valuable because of its inclusion of these primary
materials, and because it provides a clearly documented chronicle of the events of
1967, grounded in a variety of different perspectives. It is fairly well written, but
could have benefitted from another round of careful copy-editing. While primarily of
interest to those concerned with Hong Kong, it is also relevant to scholars of Chinese
international relations, because of the importance of Hong Kong in Chinese affairs.
Eventually, we can hope that archival research in the People’s Republic will give us a
fuller understanding of China’s side of the story, which is partially revealed here
through interviews, published memoirs and contemporary newspaper accounts. The
central story of how a non-democratic government responds to serious unrest and
challenges to its authority and future is also of broader relevance.
Alan Smart
University of Calgary
China’s Christian Colleges: Cross-Cultural Connections, 1900–1950, edited by
Daniel H. Bays and Ellen Widmer. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. xiv
+ 405 pp. US$65.00 (hardcover), US$24.95 (paperback).
China’s Christian Colleges fills an important gap in the historiography of the
Christian higher education in China. This edited volume builds on the early studies
by Jessie G. Lutz, Philip West and Zhang Kaiyuan to examine the cross-cultural
interactions that took place at Chinese Protestant colleges during the 20th century.
This work argues that the appropriation of western educational practices was a
reciprocal process which involved foreign missionaries, Chinese educators and
students. It draws on unpublished archival materials to explore the Sino–American
experiment of Christian higher education, the hybrid cultures on the college
campuses, and the students’ contributions to modernization and nation-building.
All the thirteen chapters are grouped thematically into five sections. Part one
reviews the secularization of Protestant missionary education in China. Terrill E. Lautz
looks at the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, a body founded in
1886 to recruit American university graduates to become missionaries. The early 20th
century saw a significant shift towards secularism, and many missionary applicants
were interested in humanitarian, educational and medical works rather than
evangelization. This secularism coincided with China’s quest for modernization.

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The transplantation of American Christian higher education is covered in Part
Two. Jeffrey W. Cody points out that in constructing the Protestant colleges, many
architects deliberately combined traditional courtyards with modern public squares
and tall buildings to create a campus space for Christianizing and civilizing Chinese
students. Even though these colleges were nationalized after 1949, their campuses
remain intact and are regarded as the most elaborate architectural works in modern
China. Ryan Dunch assesses the principles and practices of the college curriculum.
During the 1880s and 1890s, most colleges used classical Chinese as the medium of
instruction and published Chinese learning materials on applied sciences, religion
and humanities. However, when the imperial government abolished the civil service
examination in 1905, classical Chinese lost its appeal. The college educators
immediately adopted an English curriculum and emphasized the teaching of applied
sciences for China’s development. Ellen Widmer looks at the international
partnership between Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Ginling
College in Nanjing. While Smith College attracted many well-educated Chinese
women to continue their academic studies in the United States, the China mission
field enabled American female graduates to pursue their professional careers, which
they would not have been able to do at home.
When nationalism gained strength in the 1920s, the medium of instruction and
the focus of academic studies became contentious issues. Part Three reviews the
colleges’ responses to nationalism. Edward Yihua Xu evaluates the English
academic curriculum at St. John’s University in Shanghai. Founded by the
American Episcopal Church in 1879, St. John’s was the most anglicized
university there, with strong emphasis on professional studies such as journalism,
medicine, agriculture, library sciences and laws. However, this English-speaking
learning environment was criticized by Chinese nationalists as drawing students
away from their heritage. Dong Wang follows the missionary career of Charles K.
Edmunds. When Edmunds was president of the Canton Christian College (later
known as Lingnan University) from 1907 to 1924, the acquisition of English was
a prerequisite for students. But he actively promoted the study of Chinese history
and culture on campus. Upon his return to the United States, he drew on his China
experience to create a department of Oriental affairs at Pomona College. This was
the first Asian studies program at an American liberal arts institution.
Many Christian colleges offered professional studies programs to attract students.
According to Helen Schneider, missionary Ava B. Milan designed home economics
at Yenching University to provide Chinese women with a sense of professional
womanhood and practical skills for a modern society. Another example was Soochow
University Law School, the only professional school to teach Anglo–American law in
China. Alison W. Conner stresses that Soochow’s unique curriculum helped students
to integrate liberal arts education with legal training.
Politicization had a far-reaching impact on Christian colleges in the mid-20th
century, a theme addressed in Part Four. Susan Rigdon takes a critical look at
citizenship education. When the Republican state implemented the National Salvation
movement in the 1930s, it demanded the colleges to propagate patriotic nationalism

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among students. Consequently, loyalty to the Chinese state took precedence over
membership in a global Christian community. Jiafeng Liu examines the American
plan for Christian colleges after the Second World War. Concerned with the need for
postwar recovery, many Chinese educators sought to train a new generation of
specialists to assist with social and economic reconstruction.
The status of Chinese studies was another contentious issue in the colleges.
The Harvard-Yenching Institute, founded in 1928 to promote the study of Chinese
culture, was hailed as an exception to the conventional focus on sciences and
professional training. Paul Daniel Waite and Peichi Tung Waite reveal the
conflicting versions of Harvard and Yenching administrators regarding the
development of Asian studies. Harvard intended to educate Americans about
Chinese arts and culture, but Yenching was determined to provide fellowships for
Chinese students preparing for graduate research on China.
How representative was the Chinese example of Christian higher education is
discussed in part five. Yuko Takahashi refers to Japan’s Tsuda College, which
taught Japanese women the western ideals of marital partnership, individuality and
self-discipline, and provided them with practical skills to compete in a fast-
changing world. Ted Widmer discusses the problem of politicization in Turkey’s
Robert College. Its English curriculum contributed to the success of Robert College,
but the close connection with the United States provoked serious anti-foreign
attacks when the Turkish society became increasingly nationalistic. As a result, the
college campus was taken over by the government in the 1970s. The Japanese and
Turkish stories paralleled the experience of Chinese Christian colleges.
Considered together, all the chapters highlight the global and local forces that
shaped the development of Christian higher education in China. The success of
these colleges had to do with the system of modern educational management. The
American educational missionaries worked closely with Chinese faculty members
to design the goals, contents and structure of the academic curriculum. They
introduced a range of liberal arts and professional studies programs, and
implemented experiential learning at different levels.
Methodologically, the editors skillfully integrate a China-centered perspective
with comparative studies on Japan and Turkey. Their findings show that the
transmission of western educational ideals and pedagogical practices never took
place in a vacuum. On some occasions, the American educators intended to
promote religious and professional studies but their Chinese colleagues were
determined to educate critical minds and train specialists. Only by understanding
these interactions can we appreciate the continuity and change of these colleges,
and their longstanding impacts and legacy in China today.
In short, China’s Christian Colleges is an important reference work. It is
authoritative, balanced and insightful, and should be essential reading for anyone
interested in the history of Sino–American encounters and the development of
modern education in China.
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee
Pace University in New York