page_title: Protestant missions in China
section_title: Expansion: 1901 to 1920s
hierarchical_section_title: Protestant missions in China / Expansion: 1901 to 1920s
caption_attribution_description: English: University of Pennsylvania's Medical School in Canton, China, members of the first class
context_page_description: In the early 19th century, Western colonial expansion occurred at the same time as an evangelical revival – the Second Great Awakening – throughout the English-speaking world, leading to more overseas missionary activity. The nineteenth century became known as the Great Century of modern religious missions.
  Beginning with the English missionary Robert Morrison in 1807, thousands of Protestant men, their wives and children, and unmarried female missionaries would live and work in China in an extended encounter between Chinese and Western culture. Most missionaries represented and were supported by Protestant organizations or denominations in their home countries. They entered China at a time of growing power by the British East India Company, but were initially restricted from living and traveling in China except for the limited area of the Thirteen Factories in Canton, now known as Guangzhou, and Macau. In the 1842 treaty ending the First Opium War missionaries were granted the right to live and work in five coastal cities. In 1860, the treaties ending the Second Opium War with the French and British opened up the entire country to missionary activity.
context_section_description: The Boxer Uprising discredited xenophobia and opened the way for a period of growth in Protestant missionaries and missionary institutions, numbers of Christians, and acceptance by non-Christians. The period from 1900 until 1925 has been called the "Golden Age" for Christian missionaries in China.  By 1919, there were 3,300 missionaries in China (not counting their children) divided about equally among married men, married women, and unmarried women and reached a high of 8,000, including children, in 1925.  In 1926, civil war, political unrest, competition from ideologies such as Marxism, and the Great Depression saw the missionary enterprise begin to decline.
  Example of missionary activity during this period include the following.  Due to social custom, the women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors of Western medicine.  This resulted in a demand for female doctors of Western medicine in China.  Thus, female medical missionary Dr. Mary H. Fulton (1854–1927) was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to found the first medical college for women in China.  Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women (夏葛女子醫學院), it was located in Guangzhou, China, and was enabled by a large donation from Mr. Edward A.K. Hackett (1851–1916) of Indiana, USA.  The college was dedicated in 1902 and offered a four-year curriculum.  By 1915, there were more than 60 students, mostly in residence. Most students became Christians, due to the influence of Dr. Fulton. The college was officially recognized, with its diplomas marked with the official stamp of the Guangdong provincial government.  The college was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese women's social status.  The David Gregg Hospital for Women and Children (also known as Yuji Hospital 柔濟醫院) was affiliated with this college. The graduates of this College included CHAU Lee-sun (周理信, 1890–1979) and WONG Yuen-hing (黃婉卿), both of whom graduated in the late 1910s and then practiced medicine in the hospitals in Guangdong province.
  Dr. Fred P. Manget (1880–1979) went from Georgia, USA, to Shanghai as a medical missionary in 1909. In 1912, he rented a building in Houzhou to establish a hospital that could hold about 30 beds.  At the end of World War I, Dr. Manget returned to Shanghai and discussed with the representative of the Rockefeller Foundation in China about the Foundation's intention to spread the practice of Western medicine in China.  After much negotiation, the Chinese Government agreed to provide 9 acres of land, while the Foundation provided US$30,000 to build a hospital in Huzhou.  The Rockefeller Foundation also funded a hospital in Suzhou, China, after a request from missionary John Abner Snell. The remaining needed funds were provided by the Southern Methodist Church and the Northern Baptist Church in the USA.  Thus, the small hospital with a small rented building and one doctor was transformed into Huzhou General Hospital (湖州醫院), which had 9 acres of land, over 100 nurses and 100 other personnel, in addition to the most modern medical facilities in China.  The facilities included a chemistry laboratory, an X-ray facility and a Nursing School.  Later, Japanese troops occupied Huzhou General Hospital.  The family members of Dr. Manget were able to leave China for the USA.  However, Dr. Manget was not willing to leave China.  When he saw how the Japanese troops treated the Chinese people, he pointed out their wrongdoing.  As a consequence, he was arrested by the Japanese troops, who accused him of espionage.  Later, the Japanese troops released him.  Under the strict control of the Japanese troops, Huzhou General Hospital reopened and Dr. Manget worked there for three and a half years.
  Christian missions were especially successful among ethnic groups on the frontiers. For them Christianity offered not only spiritual attraction but resistance to Han Chinese. The British missionary Samuel Pollard, for instance, devised the Pollard Script for writing the Miao language in order to transl
caption: First graduating class of University Medical School in Canton, 1911
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