Missionaries and modernization in China: navigating cultural conflict and historical legacy

After China was forced to open up to the West by the First Opium War (1839–42), a wave of Western Christian missionaries descended on the country, not only seeking to convert but also introducing Western science, medicine, and education. Although they made significant contributions to the country’s ventilating revolution, such as founding hospitals, schools, and educational institutions, they also encountered a solidly ingrained cultural barrier. This study begins to fill the information gap surrounding the various dimensions of missionary heritage in China by combining Western and native Chinese sources. Drawing on revisionist historiography, this paper critically examines how missionaries served as agents of educational and scientific progress, particularly in the areas of public health and women’s education. For their part, their activities typically led to misunderstandings, suspicion, and resistance, as they were closely linked to imperial interests. The study results demonstrate that the reception of the missionaries was inconsistent. They served as a mechanism for institutional building and social advancement, particularly for those women, and they also heightened tensions within a millennium-old Confucian- and Daoist-based society. This ambivalent legacy, inspired by both idealism and cultural imperialism, continues to inform the discourse of modernity in China today. The book offers a more realistic view of missionary functions in China by suggesting that it is essential to reconcile the legacy of disrupting traditional Chinese society with the documented accomplishments of the missionaries.