Institute of Advanced Studies, The Australian National University
Abstract
Western overseas missionaries have been significant conduits of knowledge about non-Western cultures. British Christian missions in China in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth century created a wealth of written and photographic sources on Chinese society. They also sent a range of Chinese material culture to Britain in order to educate and engage British congregations and thus raise money and support for the missions. This article develops debates in the history working and middle class global networks and British education history, in an exploration of missionary education and fund raising. Through cross-cultural exchanges of material goods, through the exhibiting of Chinese things and even people in Britain, and through the promotion of named individuals and institutions in China, local communities in Britain and China became intertwined. Close examination of a wealth of detail held in UK missionary archives and parish records reveals how local parish boundaries were stretched to the provinces of China, and China was condensed within the missionary empire and read through a web of British cultural values and a myriad of local allegiances. The publication of this journal was delayed until November 2008, hence its inclusion in the 2008-2013 publication period
