On American Trader Olyphant And The Early Protestant Missionaries To China(1820-1851)

Since the Opium War,commercial intercourse and preaching were the common appeals of the West for China.With the help of unequal treaties,foreign traders and missionaries came one after another.Among the multitude of traders coming to China,Olyphant was one of the distinctive characters,Olyphant & Co.he set up in Canton(Guangzhou)played a crucial position in the early-stage Sino-American trade relationship and history of missionary work to China.Olyphant took pains to subsidize the preach of Morrison,Samuel Wells Williams,Peter Parker among other missionaries in China.Frequent interaction in cultural and educational fields took place,while intimate connections were also established between them.In addition,Olyphant also tried to persuade other traders to resist the temptation of opium trade,and become engaged in anti-opium trade activities with missionaries.What Olyphant did was praised by members of American society including missionaries in China,and he was hailed as "Father of the American Mission to China".Therefore,research on the relationship between Olyphant the American trader and early missionaries in China while making objective comment,which can help further understanding of the traces of foreign traders and missionaries of the late Qing Dynasty in China,so as to pry into the profound essence embedded in the cultural exchange between China and the West.