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Announcing… Salt and Light
Salt and Light: Lives of Faith that Shaped Modern China. Volume I in a new series “Studies in Chinese Christianity”
Carol Lee Hamrin, Editor, with Stacey Bieler
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China had a budding civil society one hundred years ago, the foundation for today’s rebirth of civic norms and institutions. Like today, an earlier wave of globalization brought rapid economic development and social change. This collection of lively personal portraits showcases the lives of ten outstanding Chinese citizens who helped their country make social and cultural progress from 1870-1940, despite hard times of war and revolution.
Most were educated abroad and creatively applied their Western knowledge and experience to solve problems facing the nation. These men and women were pioneers in a wide range of modern professions and thus many are known by name in China for their public accomplishments. Yet few people know how their family backgrounds or personal traumas or faith commitments shaped their character.
These social and cultural reformers served others out of their Christian convictions, which gave them a sense of vocation and a spirit of altruism. They lived out the command of Jesus in the book of Matthew to do good deeds as “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” They offered “light” to others in dark times, and served as “salt” to preserve a society under enormous stress from economic dislocation and corrupt power politics typical of early industrial capitalism world-wide.
China could build on this earlier legacy in reconstructing civil society in the contemporary global era. These stories can also enhance international understanding of world Christianity, and provide models for young professionals inside and outside the church.
The outstanding scholars who contributed to this volume recover the “lost stories” through in-depth research and interviews that illuminate what motivated their subjects. The authors include interesting anecdotes, quotations and photographs to make their subjects come alive. Research notes and a timeline at the end of the volume provide sources and the historical context.
From the Table of Contents
1. Rong Hong, the first “returned student” from America who fought against the coolie trade
2. Tang Guo’an, the first president of Tsinghua University, and an important actor in stopping the opium trade
3. Shi Meiyu founded a hospital and developed the nursing profession.
4. Fan Zimei, a pioneering editor and writer for the YMCA
5. Ding Shujing, the first Chinese woman to head the YWCA in China
6. Mei Yiqi, President of Tsinghua University in Beijing and of Southwest United University
7. Lin Qiaozhi, an early graduate of Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) and one of the nation’s leading obstetricians
8. Wei Zhuomin, President of Central China University in Wuhan from 1929-1952; a philosopher and an early proponent of “World Christianity.”
9. Wu Yifang, China’s first woman university president; the only woman in China’s delegation at the founding of the U.N.
10. Yan Yangchu, a Yale graduate who pioneered mass rural literacy training.