Rubinstein examines the efforts of the Protestant missionaries, representatives of evangelical mission societies in Great Britain and the United States, who sought to introduce Protestant Christianity to Canton, Guangdong Province, and the great empire that was the Qing-dominated China in the decades before the Opium War.

Like many of her fellow missionaries to China, Pearl Buck found that she was not immune to the influence of her adopted home. Some missionaries even found themselves "convert[ed] ... by the Far East." In this book Lian Xi tells the story of Buck and two other American missionaries to China in the early twentieth century who gradually came to question, and eventually reject, the evangelical basis of Protestant missions as they developed an appreciation for Chinese religions and culture. Lian Xi uses these stories as windows to understanding the development of a broad theological and cultural liberalism within American Protestant missions, which he examines in the second half of the book.

Examines how representatives of evangelical mission societies in Britain and the US sought to introduce Protestant Christianity to Canton, Guadngdong Province, and the Qing-dominated Chinese empire in the decades before the Opium War. Reviews the cultural and political background of the efforts, and focuses on Robert Morrison of the London Missionary and his work in Canton. Adds insight not only into missionary work in China but also the Anglo-American cooperation that led to closer theological and institutional ties. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

At the turn of the century, women represented over half of the American foreign mission force and had settled in "heathen" China to preach the lessons of Christian domesticity. In this engrossing narrative, Jane Hunter uses diaries, reminiscences, and letters to recreate the backgrounds of the missionaries and the problems and satisfactions they found in China. Her book offers insights not only into the experiences of these women but also into the ways they mirrored the female culture of Victorian America. "A subtle and finely written book... [on] an aspect of the mission world in China that has never before received such probing, affectionate, detailed treatment."--Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books "An important and often entertaining work....New angles on imperialism and gentility alike."--Martin E. Marty, Reviews in American History "A triumph of sophisticated subtle intelligence. Though quite cognizant of the dark side of the confluence of American nationalism and the missionary enterprise, Hunter's interest is in moving beyond that understanding to explore how the meeting of two cultures affected, and was shaped by, a female angle of vision."--Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Signs "Jane Hunter writes better than most novelists, and she has a topic more demanding and rewarding than the subjects many novelists deal with. Her story of the valiant and ofttimes guilt-ridden women who ventured to China, singly or with spouses, to win the country for Christ creates a world and beckons readers into it."--Christian Century

This collection of 15 essays provides a fully developed account of the domestic significance of foreign missions from the 19th century through the Vietnam War. U.S. and Canadian missions to China, South America, Africa, and the Middle East have, it shows, transformed the identity and purposes of their mother countries in important ways.

Includes the following papers: The Missionary Contribution to China; Science and Salvation in China: The Life and Work of W.A.P. Martin (1827-1916); Protestant Missions in China, 1877-1890: The Institutionalization of Good Works; The Missionary and Chinese Nationalism; The Missionary and China's Rural Problems ; and also an appendix on articles on missionary subjects published in Papers on China.