Ch 6: Phase 4 - Missionary Life "In the Field"
In the introduction to this section, we provide an overview of the jobs and activities performed by the West China missionaries in the field within the context of their transnational microculture, drawing distinctions among those of evangelistic, medical and educational missionaries, as well as along lines of gender and phases of mission-building. These were so many and various that it would require another book to cover them thoroughly. Instead, therefore, we approach life in the field from the perspective of windows into specific times, places or themes that illustrate professional and recreational facets of the missionary microculture lifestyle.
For the remainder of this section, we provide a set of vivid, fine-grained accounts of the practices that made up missionary work and leisure. We draw on visual images and writings to evoke the sensory flow of life in the missionary community – the routine tasks that made up the work day, the pastimes and recreations on which missionaries expended their free time, and the everyday/everynight activities of West China mission life. Our aim is to provide readers a more experiential entry into the subject, which we think may entice them to explore more of the book and its web content.
Some examples of “slices” we might include here are:
- Plenty of Pandas: Hunting in the Service of Science
- Muscular Christianity: Sport in Work and Play
- God’s Business: Vignettes in Mission Management
- Indigo Interventions: Gender Reformation and Retooling Textile Industries
- Missionary Music: The Sounds of Christian Modernity
- Reading Cultures: Circulation of Books and Ideas
- Christian Marriages: Never the Twain Shall Meet
- Travel Adventures: Bandits, Warships and Warlords
- Performing Christianity: Missionary Amateur Theatre Productions
- Holy Cows: Missionaries Must Have Milk