Ch 9: Phase 7 - Leaving the Field
At one time or another, every missionary left China (and most left several times before their final departure). Leaving China was not a one-time event or a single transition. Departures happened repeatedly in the course of a missionary career, and departure rituals such as farewell parties or the dispersal of possessions were deeply embedded in the social life of mission communities. As discussed in the previous chapters, furloughs were a form of recurring departure. Most missionary families experienced repeated stepwise departures as different members of the family left China at different times. Often it was unclear when or whether they would return. These family separations and future uncertainties created deep trauma for some, but were an accepted part of missionary culture for others.
Some final departures were routine, as missionaries finished their terms and went back to North America. Return to the “home” country was a condition of employment for most sponsoring mission societies. Other temporary and final departures were crisis-driven by security conditions in Eastern China, when missionaries were told by their governing bodies to leave (often against the wishes of missionaries who wanted to remain in the field). Depending on the circumstance, the distances separated from the missionary stations varied from retreating to the mountain cottages to avoid Japanese bombs, to sojourning in Shanghai or Japan during times of anti-foreign agitation, and to returning to one’s home country during times of extreme hardship.
The timing of crisis-led departures became a source of tension within mission communities in the mid-1920 nationalist uprising, and again in the late 1940s, when some wanted to stay on through the rise of a new Communist government, and others feared being trapped by hostile Communist forces. The decision to leave (or not) was freighted with the meanings missionaries attached to their presence in China, their responsibilities as Christians, and their imagination of what the future might hold for China.