'Speaking to the wind': American Presbyterian missionaries in Ningbo from the 1840s to the 1860s (China)

This research deals with the work and experiences of the American Presbyterian missionaries in Ningbo, China, from the 1840s to the 1860s. The Opium War ushered in a new era of the Sino-Western relations and provided Protestant missions with access to millions of Chinese in the open ports. With a strong sense of moral and cultural superiority, the missionaries not only wanted to spread the Christian gospels in China, but also they desired to destroy Chinese cultural traditions which in their view were incompatible with Christianity. The Chinese, however, considered Chinese civilization the only true presentation of civilization and were extremely unresponsive to missionary messages. Within the context of cultural confrontation, the missionaries carried out their work, encountered indifference, if not overt opposition, and made unsatisfactory progress in the early decades regardless of their great commitment and sacrifices.; The Ningbo mission was the first chief station of the Presbyterian China Mission and one of the major Protestant enterprises in China during the mid-nineteenth century. The work and experiences of the Presbyterian missionaries in Ningbo are representative of the general development and disappointment of the Protestant enterprise in China during its early stage. The Ningbo mission adopted the non-accommodation policy, took the bottom-up approach, and placed direct evangelism as top priority. This research tries to analyze the historical limits of those missionaries as well as to provide cultural explanations for how they chose the way they proceeded with their work.; Missionary correspondences, journals, and memoirs provide research with a vivid human dimension. It is a history of a cultural enterprise, and it unfolds through the lives of a specific group of men and women in a given period and place. They lived, worked, and strived to find effective and efficient ways to achieve the goal of their enterprise, and their searches provided invaluable lessons for all the others coming after them.