Cultures Colliding (Hardcover)

John R. Haddad

ISBN 10: 1439911606 / ISBN 13: 9781439911600

Published by Temple University Press,U.S., Philadelphia PA, 2023

About this Item

Hardcover. As incredible as it may seem, the American missionaries who journeyed to China in 1860 planning solely to spread the Gospel ultimately reinvented their entire enterprise. By 1900, they were modernizing China with schools, colleges, hospitals, museums, and even YMCA chapters. In Cultures Colliding, John R. Haddad nimbly recounts this transformative institution-building-how and why it happened-and its consequences. When missionaries first traveled to rural towns atop mules, they confronted populations with entrenched systems of belief that embraced Confucius and rejected Christ. Conflict ensued as these Chinese viewed missionaries as unwanted disruptors. So how did this failing movement eventually change minds and win hearts? Many missionaries chose to innovate. They built hospitals and established educational institutions offering science and math. A second wave of missionaries opened YMCA chapters, coached sports, and taught college. Crucially, missionaries also started listening to Chinese citizens, who exerted surprising influence over the preaching, teaching, and caregiving, eventually running some organizations themselves. They embraced new American ideals while remaining thoroughly Chinese.In Cultures Colliding, Haddad recounts the unexpected origins and rapid rise of American institutions in China by telling the stories of the Americans who established these institutions and the Chinese who changed them from within. Today, the impact of this untold history continues to resonate in China. Why American missionaries started building schools, colleges, medical schools, hospitals, and YMCA chapters in China before 1900 Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781439911600

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Cultures Colliding (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Temple University Press,U.S., Philadelphia PA
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1439911606
• ISBN 13: 9781439911600
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

As incredible as it may seem, the American missionaries who journeyed to China in 1860 planning solely to spread the Gospel ultimately reinvented their entire enterprise. By 1900, they were modernizing China with schools, colleges, hospitals, museums, and even YMCA chapters. In Cultures Colliding, John R. Haddad nimbly recounts this transformative institution-building—how and why it happened—and its consequences.

When missionaries first traveled to rural towns atop mules, they confronted populations with entrenched systems of belief that embraced Confucius and rejected Christ. Conflict ensued as these Chinese viewed missionaries as unwanted disruptors. So how did this failing movement eventually change minds and win hearts? Many missionaries chose to innovate. They built hospitals and established educational institutions offering science and math. A second wave of missionaries opened YMCA chapters, coached sports, and taught college. Crucially, missionaries also started listening to Chinese citizens, who exerted surprising influence over the preaching, teaching, and caregiving, eventually running some organizations themselves. They embraced new American ideals while remaining thoroughly Chinese.

In Cultures Colliding, Haddad recounts the unexpected origins and rapid rise of American institutions in China by telling the stories of the Americans who established these institutions and the Chinese who changed them from within. Today, the impact of this untold history continues to resonate in China.

About the Author

John R. Haddad is Professor of American Studies and Popular Culture at Penn State Harrisburg. He is the author of The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776-1876 and America's First Adventure in China: Trade, Treaties, Opium, and Salvation (Temple). In 2010, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and research at the University of Hong Kong.