Synopses & Reviews
At the turn of the century, women represented over half of the American foreign mission force and had settled in heathen China to preach the lessons of Christian domesticity. In this engrossing narrative, Jane Hunter uses diaries, reminiscences, and letters to recreate the backgrounds of the missionaries and the problems and satisfactions they found in China. Her book offers insights not only into the experiences of these women but also into the ways they mirrored the female culture of Victorian America.A subtle and finely written book... on] an aspect of the mission world in China that has never before received such probing, affectionate, detailed treatment.-Jonathan Spence, New York Review of BooksAn important and often entertaining work....New angles on imperialism and gentility alike.-Martin E. Marty, Reviews in American HistoryA triumph of sophisticated subtle intelligence. Though quite cognizant of the dark side of the confluence of American nationalism and the missionary enterprise, Hunter's interest is in moving beyond that understanding to explore how the meeting of two cultures affected, and was shaped by, a female angle of vision.-Regina Morantz-Sanchez, SignsJane Hunter writes better than most novelists, and she has a topic more demanding and rewarding than the subjects many novelists deal with. Her story of the valiant and ofttimes guilt-ridden women who ventured to China, singly or with spouses, to win the country for Christ creates a world and beckons readers into it.-Christian Century
Review
"At the beginning of the 1900's, more than half of the U.S. Protestant missionary force were women. Hunter's book is based on a study of the diaries, reminiscences, and letters of 40 of the thousands of American women missionaries in China. In her study of those women, Hunter underscores a central conflict which all American women of the late Victorian era faced namely, the tension between their devotion to their own families and their strong sense of social responsibility to the masses. An important historical study of American women. Well-written, it includes approximately 40 photographs." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)