West China Missions Digital Repository

Lone Carrier on Anlan Bridge

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Beginning in the late 1880s, a small stream of Canadian and American missionaries made their permanent home in Sichuan Province in West China. Inspired by Social Gospel theologians, their numbers had swelled to hundreds by the 1920s, then began dwindling during the 1930s and lessened further during  WWII. The missionary presence in China finally ceased in 1951 when they were forced to leave under the Communist regime.

Although these missionary men and women left their homes and families to “evangelize the world in one generation,” from the start their mission embraced not only evangelism, but also education and medicine. Their teaching fine arts, humanities and sciences in middle schools and universities was motivated by the premises that Christianity formed the foundation of a universal democratic society, and that liberal arts and science education was the route to effective Christian leadership. Their social engineering experiment provides a unique opportunity to analyze processes of rapid social and cultural change in both East and West. 

This site is dedicated to presenting resources by and about the West China missionaries, especially photographs and ephemera held in the families of their descendants, compiled and researched mainly by Cory Willmott, a "Mish Kid II" herself, and also an emerita professor of anthropology.

I welcome feedback about the site and its contents. Please email me at cwillmo@siue.edu if you have questions or comments about anything on the site, including but not limited to corrections of fact and identification of subjects in photos.

 

Sneak Peek

  • Red Pandas at Xiqu Park, 1975

    A red panda and the back half of another red panda in a zoo enclosure.

  • A Panda Sitting on Ice at Xiqu Park, 1975

    An adult panda holds a stalk of bamboo while sitting on what appears to be ice in a zoo enclosure.

  • A Panda Chewing Bamboo at Xiqu Park, 1975

    An adult panda sits on the grass with a bunch of bamboo in front of it. An empty heart-shaped pool is in the background behind it.

  • Three Pandas at Xiqu Park, 1975

    Three adult pandas sit on a lawn with a large batch of bamboo. There is a concrete pool of water next to them.

  • Dryden Phelps Holding a Panda

    Dryden Phelps is standing in the Graham's yard holding Pandah, who is on a leash. Dryden has clips around his trousers, which suggests he was riding a bicycle. A thatched-roof pavilion can be seen in the background.

  • Two Girls and a Boy with a Panda

    Bill Willmott and two unidentified girls sit on a porch with Pandah. A servant is on the porch with them. The older girl holds Pandah's leash.

  • Bill Willmott Petting a Panda

    Bill Willmott sits on the lawn with his hand on the back of Pandah, one of the pandas captured in 1941. The panda is on a leash. A brick wall is in the background.

  • 1975 Willmott Trip to China

    This Event compiles color slides taken by Earl Willmott on his 1975 trip to China with his wife Katharine hosted by the People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

  • Six of Floyd Tangier Smith's Pandas

    Six pandas are secured to stakes in the grass at intervals of about six or eight feet apart on the lawn of either Frank Dickinson's or Gordon Agnew's home on the WCUU campus. A man with a camera, two Chinese (probably servants) and a child are seen in the background, as is a fence and line of laundry.

  • Pandora Crawling on a Lawn

    Pandora is crawling on all fours on a lawn with shrubbery behind her. This is probably the Frank Dickinson home where Pandora lived on "Canadian Row" on the WCUU campus for two or three weeks in May and June of 1938.

  • Pandora Holding a Small Stick

    Pandora is lying on her back holding a small stick on the lawn of a missionary home on the WCUU campus. This is probably the home of Frank Dickinson where Pandora lived on "Canadian Row" for two or three weeks in May and June of 1938.

  • Pandora Rolling on the Grass

    Pandora is lying on her back on the lawn of a missionary home on the WCUU campus. This is probably the home of Frank Dickinson where Pandora lived on "Canadian Row" for two or three weeks in May and June of 1938.
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