W.C. White And His Sinology Study

During the external communication process of modern Chinese culture, the Christian missionary is a very important group. They played an important role in the spread of the Chinese culture in the West. Of these Western missionaries in China, many became sinologists, who either have done creative research on the traditional Chinese culture, or has made a unique contribution to the spread of the Chinese culture in the West. Their positive role has received a growing concern of Chinese and western scholars. This thesis selected William. C. White (1873-1960) as the research object on the basis of other scholars' study. Because William. C. White's experience and achievements, especially his influence in the spread of the Chinese culture in Canada have unique characteristics. Meanwhile, William. C. White is such a controversial figure that there are many historical facts worthy of study in depth.Guided by Marxism dialectic and development methods and with the integrated use of the theory and methods of History, Sociology, Archeology, this paper seeks to make a more comprehensive, objective presentation and evaluation on William. C. White. Except for the introduction and conclusion, the whole framework of this thesis is divided into four chapters, which describes the whole life of William. C. White.Chapter One is about the historical background. This will help us understand William. C. White's behavior better.Chapter Two focuses on the basic introduction of the resume of William. C. White and his life in China as a missionary.Chapter Three constitutes the main part of this paper. It stresses on White's achievements in the research of Chinese history and culture as well as the reasons why he got the achievements. William. C. White was considered as an expert on certain aspects of Chinese s history, e.g. the history of the Jewish people in China. He used to serve in the Royal Ontario Museum as the director of the Far Eastern collections, and one of the creators of the Department of Chinese Studies of University of Toronto. This chapter focuses on the process that he turned into a sinologist from a professional missionary, and his influence on propagating Chinese culture to the Canadian.Chapter Four argues on William. C. White's collection of Chinese antiquities. William. C. White is condemned for his carrying a large number of Chinese artifacts out of China. This chapter attempts to find its deep ideological heritage of this conduct, and give an objective evaluation.In conclusion, this thesis makes new attempts in the following aspects. Firstly, it lays particular emphasis on the analysis William. C. White's transform to explore why William. C. White changes his mind through analyzing the political, economical and cultural circumstances at that time. Secondly, the change course from the spread Christianity to collecting Chinese artifacts to propagate Chinese culture in the life of William. C. White is used as the plots to understand this man.