The Amoy Mission, by Rev. Wm. Rankin Duryea, D.D.

Click to Access
AMOY MAGIC SITE from
OUTSIDE China
Click to Access Amoy Magic Site from
INSIDE China
TRAVEL LINKS
Xiamen Gulangyu
Jimei Tong'an
Jinmen Z hangzhou
Quanzhou Wuyi
#1Fujian Sites!
Fujian Foto Album
Books on Fujian
Readers'Letters
Ningde Zhouning
Longyan Sanming
Putian Bridges
Travel Info,
Hakka Roundhouses
Travel Agents

MISC. LINKS
Amoy People!
Darwin Driving
Amoy Tigers
Chinese Inventions
Tibet in 80 Days
Amoy Vampires!
Dethroned!
Misc.Writings
Latest News
Lord of Opium
Back to Main Page

Chinese Kung Fu and Martial Arts Korean Tae Kwon Do Japanese Jujitsu Kung Fu

Copyright 2001-7 by Sue Brown & Dr. Bill Order Books iE-mail
Note: Please click thumbnails for larger photos!!

           THE AMOY MISSION--Part 3
                          BY THE REV. WM. RANKIN DURYEA, D.D. 1877
(Scanned and edited April 1st, 2008, by Bill Brown, Xiamen University)
Note: It took me a couple of years to find this! I searched abebooks.com but found only a 40-page photocopy at "Book Look" (they list it several times, at different prices, up to $70). I finally found that it was in my copy of Sangster, Mrs. Margaret E., Ed., “A Manual of the Missions of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America,” Board of Publication of the Reformed Church in America, New York, 1877, pp.170-209            I hope it is useful to you--and saves you a lot of time and $70!
Part 1    Part 2    Part 3      Amoy Mission: Woman in China

NATIVE CHURCHES.
The "Tai-hoe" or Classis of Amoy, has now fifteen native Churches connected with it. In these are found twelve hundred and fifty communicants. To be a Christian in China, involves trials and difficulties we can scarcely imagine. For instance, we may refer to the well-known diminutive

FEET OF CHINESE LADIES.
Parents in Christian lands are made happy in watching the natural growth and development of their children.

Parents in China, on the other hand, would be greatly mortified and distressed should the feet of their daughters grow to their natural size. A Christian mother supplies her child with shoes that will fit the feet. A Chinese mother binds and bandages the foot of her child that it may fit the shoe.

The shoe pattern, in the picture given, is supposed to be made of red silk, and to be handsomely embroidered.

The Chinese, especially the richer classes, have for many centuries been in the habit of compressing the feet of their females by the use of tight bandages. The shape of the foot thus becomes very much as seen in the picture. All the toes, except the great one, are bent under the sole, and the bandages never being permanently removed, the foot remains very nearly the size it was when they were first applied. The upper part of the foot grows out of shape and proportion, and, except to the Chinese themselves, becomes very unsightly. Of course such a distorted foot makes the gait of a Chinese lady very awkward. She sways her arms to and fro, as if walking on her heels, and is usually aided by the shoulder of an attendant, or an umbrella carried as a walking-stick. But the Chinese ladies do very little walking. It is supposed by some that the practice of binding the feet was originally imposed by the men to keep the women at home. Whether this be so or not, Chinese ladies are very seldom seen in the streets, or even in their own houses; when a gentleman enters, custom obliges them to retire to an inner apartment. They enjoy few blessings of social life, and the sphere of woman in China, as in all heathen countries, is a very inferior and degraded one."

This barbarous usage is given up by our converts, who allow the little feet of the infant daughter to grow naturally. Shocking as it seems to us, the Chinese mother has been taught that the compressed feet will add to her child's rank in the community, and secure to her immunity from degrading labors. So many Chinese shoes have been brought to this country, that we only need refer to the custom as one of the practical things with which Christianity has to deal. In our churches in Amoy, a society pledged to oppose the custom has already been formed.

CONTRIBUTIONS.
TWO of the churches support their own pastors entirely, and the benevolent contributions of the native Christians amount to sixteen hundred and sixty-four dollars. Our missionaries exercise only a general superintendence over the churches, and have all the work they can do in providing for vacant churches, instructing native students for the ministry, and pushing out preaching stations. To these last places, being the outposts of the field, they have to travel constantly; and for this purpose they employ their "Gospel Boat," as communication is mainly by the rivers flowing toward the harbor of Amoy. The residences of the missionaries are on Kolongsoo. The girls' school and churches are in the city of Amoy. It is much to be desired that the school, now having thirty-seven scholars, should be located on Kolongsoo, as being a far healthier position, and exposing the wives and daughters of our missionaries to less danger, since the ferriage between the island and Amoy is of primitive description. A good building, like that built for the education of girls in India, or the one recently raised in Japan, is becoming a necessity in our Chinese field.

Such, in a brief space, is the history of the Amoy Mission. But its real history what pen of earth can write? The secret sacrifices, the mental struggles, the persecutions, the temptations, the peace given to the soul, the glory granted to those who have triumphed over death, none but God knows these things. But what we can see, and can mark of progress, should give us the highest satisfaction. It should do more. It should prompt every Christian to prayer that God would send forth laborers to these fields "already white to the harvest," and to a consecration which leads to larger gifts for the prosecution of this blessed work. The "land of Sinim" belongs to Jesus Christ. To hasten the day when the Saviour we love shall be owned through all its broad extent, is a work to which God calls every Christian in our own favored country. God grant that every one who reads this sketch of faithful mission labor, may be stimulated to a deeper interest in the progress of the Redeemer's Kingdom on those distant heathen shores.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Amoy Mission: Woman in China

Back to The Amoy Mission Project

Please Help the "The Amoy Mission Project!" Please share any relevant biographical material and photos for the website and upcoming book, or consider helping with the costs of the site and research materials. All text and photos will remain your property, and photos will be imprinted to prevent unauthorized use.

Thanks!

Dr. Bill   Xiamen University MBA Center
E-mail: amoybill@gmail.com
Snail Mail: Dr. William Brown
Box 1288 Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian PRC   361005

TRAVEL LINKS Favorite Fujian Sites Fujian Foto Album Xiamen Gulangyu Fujian Guides Quanzhou Z hangzhou Longyan Wuyi Mtn Ningde Putian Sanming Zhouning Taimu Mtn. Roundhouses Bridges Jiangxi Guilin Order Books Readers' Letters New: Amoy Vampires! Google Search