Percentage of Canadian versus American Missionaries in West China, 1916/17 - 1940/41
Item
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Title
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Percentage of Canadian versus American Missionaries in West China, 1916/17 - 1940/41
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Identifier
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DS0017
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Description
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Bar chart comparing the percentage of American Baptist and Methodist versus Canadian missionaries in West China through the decades.
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Commentary
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This bar chart represents the percentage of missionaries in West China from the Canadian Methodist Mission/United Church of Canada Mission, the American Baptist Mission and the American Methodist Episcopal Mission. The latter two are combined to illustrate the percentage of American versus Canadian missionaries in the field. Presenting percentages rather than whole numbers better illustrates the relative proportion of missionaries from each country.
The intervals are represented in decades, apart from the 1940s for which no data is available for 1946. The most important interval is that between 1926 and 1936 because in 1927 almost all missionaries were evacuated from West China, and after 1928, missionaries were no longer protected by extraterritorial rights, such as military escorts and exemption from land taxes. They were also required to register their schools and follow the new government regulations for curriculum, including having all Chinese leaders and not mandating religious education.
An interesting result of this analysis is that in 1926 the Americans increased to a larger extent than the Canadians, decreasing the balance between them. In 1936, the trend reversed with Canadians gaining two thirds of the field. In 1940/1941, this trend persisted with the Americans continuing their downward turn while the Canadians rose to three quarters of the field.
These trends may be explained in part by the different relationships between the missionaries’ home countries and China. The US became increasingly involved in supporting the Guomindang military in their war against the communists and, after 1937, Japan. Additionally, during the Great Depression, the US became much more involved in humanitarian initiates at home, while Canada, as part of the British colonial empire, continued strong support for international causes.
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Creator
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Cory Willmott
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Date Created
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2026-05-05
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Location
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Sichuan
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Provenance
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Original research.
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Publisher
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SIUE
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Contributor
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Cory Willmott
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Type
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Dataset
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References
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American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. One-Hundred-Second Annual Report American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1916. Foreign Mission Rooms, Boston, MA
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Boynton, Charles L. ed. Directory of Protestant Missions in China, 1917 (The China Continuation Committee). Christian Literature Society Depot, 1917.
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American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. One-Hundred-Twelfth Annual Report American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1926. Foreign Mission Rooms, Boston, MA
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The West China Missions Advisory Board’s Directory 1926, According to Missions
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Directory of Protestant Missions in China, 1936. Shanghai: The North China Daily News.
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American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. One-Hundred-Twenty-Second Annual Report American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1936. Foreign Mission Rooms, Boston, MA
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Directory of Protestant Missions in China, 1940. Shanghai: The North China Daily News.
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American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Along Kingdom’s Highways: One-Hundred-Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1941
West China Mission Personnel Trends, 1916/17 - 1940/41