Events

“China On My Mind”
Exhibition Traces Emory Graduate’s Life
And Work In Nineteenth Century China

Selections from the archives of a Georgian who became one of the most influential foreigners in nineteenth century China are on display in Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library from October 12, 2007 through January 15, 2008. The life and work of Emory College graduate Young John Allen (1836–1907) is the subject of the exhibition “China on My Mind: Young John Allen’s Journey from Emory to Shanghai.”

Exhibition sponsors include Emory University’s MARBL, East Asian Studies program, Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory program, the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Department of Religion, the Transforming Community Project and the Robert W. Woodruff Library.

The exhibition is free and open to the public between Oct. 12, 2007 and Jan. 15, 2008 at the Robert W. Woodruff Library, 540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, Ga. 30322. For more information, you may call 404.727.6887 or send e-mail to marbl@emory.edu.

When: Exhibition through Jan.15th, 2008

Where: Emory University, Robert W. Woodruff Library, 540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, Ga. 30322

Cost: Free and open to the public

More info: Call 404.727.6887 or e-mail marbl@emory.edu

 

Young John Allen: A Missionary Journalist’s Life and Work in Nineteenth Century China

by Joachim Kurtz                                          

Young John Allen graduated from Emory College in 1858 and the very next day married fellow Georgian, Mary Houston. The next year the Allens left for China to serve as missionaries for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Civil War cut off funding soon after their arrival in Shanghai so that Allen, who adopted the Chinese name Lin Yuezhi 林樂知, had to find work in a variety of secular professions. Though he continued to preach, he gained his most lasting fame as a journalist, translator, publisher and educator.

In need of a salary to support his familiy, Allen took his first job in journalism as an editor at the Shanghai xinbao 上海新報 (Shanghai News) in May 1868.  He so enjoyed this new occupation that he called it his new “first love.” After only four months in the business, he founded the Jiaohui xinbao 教會新報 (The Church News), a journal with “a decidedly religious focus.” In September 1874, he reorganized this paper to match the secular interests of the urban Chinese elites and renamed it Wanguo gongbao 萬國公報(The Globe Magazine). Allen served as general editor of the Globe until July 1883 when he decided that his work as Superintendent of the Methodist Mission in China, to which he had succeeded J. W. Lambuth in May 1881, required his full attention. With financial backing from the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese (Guangxuehui 廣學會), the Wanguo gongbao resumed publication under the new English title A Review of the Times in February 1889. Allen returned as general editor, a position he held until his death in 1907.

Under Allen’s editorship the revived Wanguo gongbao arguably became the most influential news magazine in 1890s China. The journal was seen as the richest and most reliable source of information from and about the West and other regions outside of China. It sold up to 50,000 copies each week throughout the empire and was also available in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and even Hawai’i, California and New York. Many essays and translations serialized in the Review were later published as monographs, adding to Allen’s reputation as one of Shanghai’s most capable publishers.  Further journalistic endeavors included the short-lived Monthly Educator (Yizhi xinlu 益知新錄, 1877–78), which he conceived as a religious complement to the Wanguo gongbao, and the Christian Advocate (Jiaobao 教報) that he edited as official organ of the Methodist Mission from 1900 to 1907.

Through his work as journalist and editor, Allen was able to build an extensive network of acquaintances throughout China. He became deeply involved in the debates of the time. In his journalistic writings and more than one hundred volumes of translations and original works published in his name, he communicated Western concepts of economics, history, politics, international relations, natural science, and gender equality. His calls for basic changes in Chinese society and politicial institutions had a profound impact on reform-minded scholars and officials in the decades leading up to the fall of the Chinese empire in 1911. Leading reformers, such as Zheng Guanying, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, frequently acknowledged their indebtedness to Allen and his publications in their writings. He was one of very few foreigners awarded the honorary title of an “Official of the Fifth Rank” by the Qing government in recognition of his services to the country.

As Superintendent Allen placed particular emphasis on building Christian educational institutions. In 1883 he purchased land for the site of the Anglo-Chinese College (Ying-Hua shuyuan 英華書院), which he served as president from its opening in 1885 until his resignation in 1895 because of impaired health. He was instrumental in founding the McTyeire Home and School for Girls (Zhong-Xi nüshu 中西女塾) which opened in 1892 with Miss Laura Haygood, sister of his old friend and Emory classmate, Atticus Haygood, as its head. He also played a part in the foundation of Soochow University, which accepted its first students in 1900. The missions of his church to Japan and Korea were influenced by the success of Allen’s educational work in Shanghai, not least through such prominent students as Yun Ch’i-ho (T. H. Yun), the first Korean student to attend Emory and founder of an Anglo-Korean College in Seoul.

Allen returned to the United States only five times. During his first visit, on July 17, 1878, Emory College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He also visited the U.S. in 1888, 1893, 1898 and 1906. After forty-seven years in China, Allen died in Shanghai on May 30, 1907. He was buried on the Baxianqiao Road Cemetery in the French Concession and is commemorated both in the southeastern United States and in Shanghai.

Allen’s personal papers, housed in Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, are one of the richest collections documenting the life and works of any individual China missionary held in the United States. The 36-box assemblage includes diaries, letters, photographs, missionary lists, clippings and subject files, sermons, essays, printed works and personal possessions. The initial donation of 10 boxes was received before 1966, with major additions arriving in 1966 and 1994.

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Joachim Kurtz is an Assistant Professor of Chinese at Emory University. He is curator of the exhibition along with Eric Reinders, Associate Professor of Religion, in collaboration with Andrew P. Addington, Yen C. Chiu, and Phylicia S. Wu, and Dr. Naomi Nelson, Assistant Director of MARBL.