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Abstract
The Hunan Bible Institute (HBI) was a prominent missionary organization based out of the city of Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan province, located far in China’s interior. By the 1920’s the HBI built a large compound located outside the eastern gate of the city, which mainly functioned as a training school for Chinese converts and missionaries. Despite Hunan’s reputation as one of the most radically anti-foreign regions of China, early efforts of evangelistic outreach were mainly achieved through the efforts of small “colporteur teams,” who were sent out on small boats along Hunan’s complex network of rivers and canals. At the same time, archival evidence has shown how the story of how HBI acquired the property to build its spacious campus initially proved controversial and was indicative of how wealthy foreign institutions maintained a complex relationship with local interests during a very turbulent decade in China’s modern history..
Acknowledgment
I am grateful to Thomas Reilly (Pepperdine University) and my colleagues at UNC Pembroke, Christopher Woolley and Jamie Mize who have read and commented on this article. Thanks also to Daniel Knorr (University of Cambridge) for some useful help and suggestions during the writing process. Much thanks also to Jeremy Labosier of Biola University Libraries for permission and guidance on using Biola’s digital collections.
Notes
1 Pamphlet,“Biola in China, 湖南聖經學校”.
2 Wood II, Remembering The Fundamentals Project.
3 Yao, “The Hunan Bible Institute (Biola-in-China)”, 126.
4 Wood II, “Chapter I: Lyman Stewart, Christian Businessman,” 16.
5 See Hobart, By the City of Long Sand; Oil for the Lamps of China; Hume, Doctor’s East, Doctor’s West.
6 Stark and Wang, A Star in the East, 25.
7 Reilly, Saving the Nation, 64.
8 Tiedemann, Handbook of Christianity in China, Volume Two, 686–688.
9 Dunch, “Beyond Cultural Imperialism,” 318.
10 Yao, The Fundamentalist Movement Among Protestant Missionaries, 280.
11 Xi, Redeemed by Fire, 47.
12 Bays, A New History of Christianity in China, 106.
13 Undated Pamphlet, Hunan Bible Institute.
14 Bays, A New History of Christianity in China, 68.
15 Yao, “The Hunan Bible Institute (Biola-in-China),” 128.
16 “Letter from Frank Keller to Ralph D. Smith,” July 6, 1909. In Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
17 John, “Griffith John in Hunan,” 364–369.
18 Platt, Provincial Patriots, 36.
19 “Letter from Frank Keller to Ralph D. Smith,” November 10, 1909. In Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
20 Yao, “The Hunan Bible Institute (Biola-in-China),” 131.
21 “Letter from Frank Keller to Ralph D. Smith,” November 10, 1909. In Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
22 “Letter from Frank Keller to Ralph D. Smith,” November 10, 1909. In Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
23 Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising, 85.
24 Spence, The Search for Modern China, 207.
25 See Bays, A New History of Christianity in China.
26 Reilly, Saving the Nation, 25.
27 Harrison, The Missionary’s Curse, 5.
28 See Stark and Wang, A Star in the East, 27.
29 Hunan Bible Institute, “Map of Changsha”.
30 Dunch, “Beyond Cultural Imperialism,” 324.
31 Anderson, “Census, Map, Museum,”173.
32 Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 38.
33 Ying 唐英 and Duping 刘笃平. Changsha Jiyi, 9.
34 Mundy, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, 12.
35 Craib, Cartographic Mexico, 20. See also Brook, Mr. Selden’s Map of China.
36 Knorr, “Placing the U.S. State in the Interior of China, 279–313, 282.
37 Ibid., 282.
38 These were 唐桐蔭堂 (Tang Tong Yin Tang), 唐建侯 (Tang Jian Hou), 黃三畏堂 (Huang San Wei Tang), 虔慶會 (Qian Qing Hui), 李畏假 (Li Wei Jia), and 李培心堂 (Li Pei Xin Tang). The Hunan Bible Institute to C.D. Meinhardt, American Vice Consul, Changsha, April 15, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 104. File No. 852. NACP.
39 HBI to Meinhardt, April 15, 1925. NACP.
40 The Hunan Bible Institute to C.D. Meinhardt, American Vice Consul, Changsha, April 23, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 104. File No. 852. NACP.
41 Translation, From the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs to the American Consul at Changsha, December 12, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 104. File No. 852. NACP.
42 Translation, From Messrs. Shih I, Huang Tao Sheng, Kung Chia Kai, and Li Ching Shen, Chiefs of Chung Shang Tang, to the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, December 12, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 104. File No. 852. NACP.
43 Pamphlet, 蕭幕光先生八大罪惡 Xiao Mu Guang Xian Sheng Ba Da Zui E, In Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
44 Spence, God’s Chinese Son, 163–165.
45 The razing and desecration of gravesites has been studied elsewhere. During World War II the Nazi’s unearthed and desecrated Jewish cemeteries throughout Europe. Jewish residents in the northern Greek city of Salonica were equally appalled to witness the graves of their loved ones were unearthed and exposed under the authority of German occupation during World War II. See Mazower, Salonica, 398, 431. See also Colls, Piaski’s Old Jewish Cemetery. The vandalism and unearthing of gravesites has also been chronicled in scholarship about Native Americans. See Midtrod, “Calling for More Than Human Vengence".
46 Koll, Railroads and the Transformation of Modern China, 40.
47 Harvey, “Private Property and the Capitalist State”.
48 The Yale version of the map reads, 中華民國二年冬月湖南省城警察廳側員周令鑫製, Zhonghua minguo ernian dongyue hunan shengcheng jingchating ceyuan Zhou Lingxin zhi (Edited and surveyed by Zhou Lingxin, second year, 11th month of the Chinese Republic, Provincial Capital Police Department). Yale-China Association Records, RU 232, Series XVI, Box 5A. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University.
49 Frank Keller of the Hunan Bible Institutute to C.D. Meinhardt, American Consul, Changsha, December 21, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 104. File No. 852. USNA.
50 C.D. Meinhardt, American Consul, Changsha, to H.C. Yang, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Changsha. December 22, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 104. File No. 852. NACP.
51 Translation, From the Special Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, Hunan, to the American Consul, Changsha. April 21, 1926. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 110. File No. 852. NACP.
52 Ibid.
53 Frank Keller of the Hunan Bible Institute to C.D. Meinhardt, American Consul, Changsha, May 1, 1926. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 110. File No. 852. NACP.
54 C.D. Meinhardt, American Consul, Changsha, to Luo Decheng, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Changsha. May 3, 1926. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 110. File No. 852. NACP.
55 See Cohen, China and Christianity.
56 Prior to his appointment in China, Shurman had served as president of Cornell University, with diplomatic tours in Montenegro and Greece. At least in domestic matters on the home front, Shurman had a progressive track record, establishing Cornell as a future model for research universities, and admitting the first African American students to the university in 1911.
57 C.D. Meinhardt to Jacob Gould Schurman, American Minister, Peking, January 23, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 102. File No. 800. NACP.
58 McDonald, The Urban Origins of Rural Revolution, 16. This reference to MacDonald was also used in my doctoral dissertation, James J. Hudson, “River Sands, Urban Spaces,”10.
59 C.D. Meinhardt to Jacob Gould Schurman, American Minister, Peking, January 23, 1925. RG 84: Records of Foreign Service Posts, Changsha, China, Vol. 102. File No. 800. NACP.
60 Meinhardt to Schurman, January 1925, NACP.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid.
64 “Announcement of Union of Liling Students at Changsha,” Enclosure 1, in Meinhardt to Schurman, January 1925, NACP.
65 Yao, “The Hunan Bible Institute (Biola-in-China),” 132–135.
66 Shan, “The Anti-Christian Movement Revisited,” 7.
67 “Frank Keller,” Digital Commons @ Biola..
68 .2, Folder, “Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, Etc.” The written comment at top left reads: “Here lines should be drawn in the space between the R.R. (railroad) and the military road, not across our site. May represent foot paths.” Copied and reprinted here with permission. .3, Hunan Bible Institute, “Map of Changsha,” Digital Commons@Biola. University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
69 .2, Folder, “Hunan Bible Institute Correspondence, Etc.” The written comment at top left reads: “Here lines should be drawn in the space between the R.R. (railroad) and the military road, not across our site. May represent foot paths.” Copied and reprinted here with permission. .3, Hunan Bible Institute, “Map of Changsha,” Digital Commons@Biola. University Archives and Special Collections, Biola University (Biola University: Archives and Special Collections).
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James J. Hudson
James J. Hudson completed his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (2015), and since 2018 has served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. His doctoral research focused on the modernization of Changsha during the late Qing and early Republican periods. His most recent publication, “Jiayou (加油) for the Lamps of Republican China: Seizures of Kerosene during the Northern Expedition, 1926–28.” was featured in the Spring 2022 issue of the American Review of China Studies, which he is currently working to expand into a book-length project.