Seeking "Tan" Ancestors of Amoy Mission

Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen).  I received an interesting letter today from an Arizona couple seeking information about their "Tan" family ancestor (great grandfather, 1852-1899) from Quanzhou who became a Christian in Amoy after hearing a Presbyterian minister. As my reply might help others with the same query, I post my reply below (and their letter with their names removed for privacy's sake). If you have relevant information, please share it!

Dear P. and J.,

Greetings from Amoy and thank you for your email. I'm sorry but I've no idea what "first mission bible" was. Do you mean the first Protestant Mission? If so, the Amoy Mission was the first, and was composed of three denominations, including the English Presbyterian Mission, the London Missionary Society and the Reformed Church [Dutch] of America [RCA] mission.

The best resource, by far, is "The Reformed Church in America" by De Jong. Even though it is mainly about the RCA, it is the best history of the entire Amoy Mission and there is nothing else like it.

The Amoy Mission was not only the first (and Xiamen's Xinjie Church was the first Protestant Church) but also the strongest because of its 3-self principles, which the Amoy Mission originated in the 1850s (self propagating, self-directing, self financing), which the Chinese Communists themselves adopted after 1949 and which continue to guide registered churches. 

I have quite a few pages on my www.amoymagic.com website about the Amoy Mission, which you can reference here: http://www.amoymagic.com/Amoymission.htm

To research specifics about someone named Tan, lacking specific records, I can only suggest that you visit Xiamen churches (Xinjie, the oldest, as well as the Bamboo Church, Trinity Church on Gulangyu, etc)., and inquire if they have any records, though, sadly, most records were destroyed either by the Japanese invaders (1938-1945) or during the unCultural Revolution, during which they also destroyed the centuries-old foreign cemetery on Gulangyu Islet.

There are many online sources (though none as thorough as De Jong's book), including

City of Springs, a 1902 mission book about Quanzhou (60 km. North of Amoy), which was part of the Amoy Mission, is on my website at: http://www.amoymagic.com/Quanzhou_CityofSprings.htm
 

50 Years in Amoy, or, A History of the Amoy Mission, written in 1893 by Rev. Philip Wilson Pitcher. You can also download the above book as a Mobil for Kindle or PDF from archives.org

For the best insight on old Amoy, Pitcher also wrote, in 1907, "In and About Amoy,' which is available as a reprint on Amazon for only $16.57). 

A Google search of "Amoy Mission" returns over 5,000 results, many of which should be interesting. 
You can also visit mission archives (particularly those of the Presbyterian Church in China).

My Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen" also has over 600 pages on Xiamen and South Fujian (which was the Amoy Mission).

Best wishes with your search, and blessings from Amoy,

Dr. Bill

Academic Director, SMXMU OneMBA

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 6:30 AM, J.L.  wrote:

Dr. Bill,

I am researching my Christian heritage, and came across your website.

We are in Phoenix, AZ

​​

.

According to my aunt who wrote her biography, my great grandfather, last name TAN (1852 - 1899) got his training from the first Mission Bible in South China, with only 8 men students. He was saved after hearing a Presbyterian missionary.

Can you shed some light for us?

My husband and I are about 60 years old.  J. is a Baptist pastor.

Thank you,

J and P L.

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Amoy Mission: Doris Arrowsmith, Marie Smith, Ian Matheson Latto

Ahoy from Amoy! (historic Xiamen, China).

Today I received an inquiry from a lady in the U.K. (letter below, with her personal info deleted). Her parents were missionaries in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and she was inquiring about three people of the Amoy Mission: Doris Arrowsmith, Marie Smith and Rev. Ian Matheson Latto. I have very little on the three she asked about, so if you have anything to help her, please let me know. But here's what I do have:

Doris Arrowsmith  A missionary in Amoy, afterwards was a social worker and taught at the Rosebery County Grammar School for Girls in Epsom, Surrey (Rosebery, by the way, still stands; it became an academy in 2011). [Source: "Our-Story; Saga of a Hungarian-American Family, by Dalma Paloczi Horvath Takacs, 2007, Xibris Corporation].

According to Chris White, (Prof. at XMU and Amoy Mission researcher), in his article, "Rescuing Chinese Slave Girls in Republican Xiamen,"

"In the mid-1930s, the Municipal Council was in full-fledged support of the Asylum.  They contributed more funds than any other organization, giving up to 1,470 dollars per year to the Asylum.  In addition to these monetary contributions, the Municipal Council also appointed a representative, Miss Arrowsmith, to the Asylum.  Arrowsmith, a missionary with the English Presbyterian Church, who also served as headmaster at a local girls’ middle school, became quite involved in the affairs of the Society.  In 1935, Miss Arrowsmith invited Mrs. Martin, the British Consul for Xiamen, to teach the students how to embroider and sew specifically for Western customers.  Mrs. Martin also handled finding customers for the products produced by the students.

John Anderson, whose missionary parents were married in Fuzhou and who was born in Amoy and returned to Xiamen a few years ago to visit, wrote for one of my books, Old Gulangyu in Foreigners' Eyes, a chapter about the Japanese invasion of Xiamen in 1938. He quoted a bit about Arrowsmith from Band's book (Band, Edward, “Working His Purpose Out: The History of the English Presbyterian Mission,” Presbyterian Church of England, London, 1948--a great resource on the Amoy Mission, I have the rare original set):

"The Misses Arrowsmith and Pierce, with the staffs of the two schools and the girls, organized relief, and marvellously also continued the work of the school, (except the kindergarten)..."

 Marie Smith: The only Marie Smith I have any record of is the daughter of the famous missionary, Arthur H. Smith--of North China, not Amoy, and a Marie Smith in West China who died of typhoid. Can anyone help?

Ian Matheson Latto: almost notbing! I did find some notes in Band, 1948, about his work in Yongchun (永春), which today is only two hours from Xiamen but was remote back then (I have photos of Yongchun missionaries on horseback):

Click for larger image

Latto wrote: "In Yung-chun we are sufficiently far from the sea to feel some sense of security, and consequently the life and work of the Church has been continued under almost normal conditions. Away in the quiet of the mountains, beyond the reach of motor roads and where news is a week or two old, it was difficult to realize that the country was at-war."

Latto toured the wide districts of the field beyond Yung-chun which came under our care on the withdrawal of the Methodist Episcopal Mission."

According to Band, from 1940 to 1944, Latto "toured the wide districts of the field beyong Yong-chun which came under our care on the withdrawal of the Methodist Episcopal Mission", and all over South Fujian, including Quanzhou 泉州 (Maro Polo's port of departure, about 60 km. north of Xiamen 厦门 , Anxi 安溪  (home of Anxi tea, which sparked the Boston Tea Party, the War of Independence and the U.S.A., which has reached the point that our only choices for president last November were Clinton and Trump; so much for Anxi tea), and Zhangpu 漳浦. Latto and his colleague held conferences, retreats and short-term schools, and in 1941 Latto covered 1,600 miles: 600 miles on bicycle, 600 miles on foot and 600 miles by bus and boat. Today, we have a bullet train to most places in Fujian!

The only other mention I have of Latto is in Amoy Missionary Walter Develder's unpublished memoirs (which you can read here on my website):

"From Edinborough we went to Manchester where we spent Sunday with Ian and Joyce Latto.  These dear friends who were colleagues of ours in Fukien Province in the 1930s – and 40s.  Ian asked me to preach in his Church.  On Monday we spent a day in the beautiful Penine Hills.  That day will be remembered for its picturesque scenery, the caves, and a lunch in a cozy Tea House."

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill 
P.S. If you have my Amazon eBook, Discover Xiamen (600+ pages about Xiamen and Southern Fujian), it would really help if you could leave even a 2 or 3 line review! Thanks).

Dear Amoy Bill,

I came across your website when researching the connections with my parents who were missionaries in Sri Lanka Ceylon and Zimbabwe Southern Rhodesia in the 1930s and 1940s . I do hope that you are still welcoming contacts?

I wonder if you have any records of Doris Arrowsmith who came from the UK and was a  missionary in Amoy in the 1930s? I have another name, that of Marie Smith whose photo I have on a visit to my Methodist missionary parents in Colombo in 1932. She shared a house in Amoy with Doris Arrowsmith at the mission station.
Another name I have to ask you about is the Rev Ian Mattheson Latto who was a Presbyterian missionary we think in Amoy in the 1930s. His wife was Joyce and their children Janet and Stuart. He was also from the UK.

This is a brief message because I am not sure whether your work is still ongoing!
I do hope you find it interesting at the very least.

All the best to you.

J.K.C.

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com


Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Cynthia Borgman, Amoy Missionary 1923-1925 Gulangyu Grave

Click Photo for larger image

Ahoy from Amoy! (historic Xiamen, China).

Today, I received an email from a man asking about his wife's great aunt, Amoy Missionary Cynthia Borgman (Born June 6, 1895, served in Amoy from 1923 to June 30, 1925). I have almost nothing about her (except she had 12 sisters and 1 brother). though I do have an old photo of her grave taken by Hope Hospital nurse Jean Nienhuis. If you have any information (text, photos, etc.) on Cynthia Borgman, could you please share it? And for more photos and documents about Cynthia, visit Cynthia's page [scroll to bottom for link] on the genealogy site Familysearch (which I discovered was Mormon, and that I had Mormon relatives who had baptized me into the Mormon church whether I wanted it or not. No problem. I drink coffee and eat chocolate in spite of it).

That Cynthia died after only 2 years in Amoy is not that surprising. The average life expectancy of a China missionary was only 7 years. Their dedication, in spite of their hardships, was amazing.

That Chinese language study led, indirectly, to Cynthia's demise is also not too surprising. Cynthia had a nervous breakdown after six months of Chinese study. (See my article "Mad About Mandarin", taken from my "Discover Xiamen" Amazon eBook). She was recovering well but on June 24th got Amoebic dysentery and died 6 days later. She was buried at sunset the day she died, as bodies could not be left long in Xiamen's tropical climate.

The Sioux Center News reported,
"The services had included two hymns sung in the Chinese language, the one “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and the other “There is a land that is fairer than day." Her name in Chinese, to her friends there was “Bo-ko-mu.” And may we add to this that Cynthia was a girl who from childhood on knew the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation. We write these words that you and I may be more and better inspired for the great work of Missions. Shall we not make our sacrifices willingly and gladly?"

Insane Language Cynthia did indeed make sacrifices to learn Chinese. Anne MacKenzie-Grieves, a British resident of Gulangyu in the 1920s, wrote in her delightful book, "A Race of Green Ginger,"

"People say you get peculiar if you study Chinese too long.', Mrs. Jones of Customs addressed her remark to Mrs. Theobald quite kindly. I concluded she believed the sanity of missionaries to be somehow immune.

"Mrs. Weeks, the doctor's wife, said: 'I knew a man who put snakes in his wife's bed; he was terribly good at Chinese.'
 
"…I should have to risk the snakes.  Cyril [her husband] had to learn the language [Amoy Dialect] —that was why we were in Kulangsu. Apart from all cultural and social considerations, I, being borne in a sedan chair about the island, unable to make any sound which conveyed the least shred of meaning to the bearers, was even prepared to risk mental derangement."
    Mackenzie-Grieves

The Sweetest Language on Earth?  But Edkins (1875) wrote that the sacrifices to learn Chinese were worth it because Chinese was the Sweetest Language on the planet. After 30 years of learning Chinese myself, I'm not sure if it is the sweetest, but it's certainly in the top 2 or 3! Edkins wrote:

"The Chinese is the only living language in which through the phonetic element in the writing, joined with the poetry of all ages, written during 4000 years, and preserving rhymes for our examination, we have open to our investigation 4000 years of continuous linguistic development.

“The latter [Webb, 1678] says that ‘if ever our Europeans shall become thoroughly studied in the Chinese tongue,’ it will be found that the Chinese have very many words ‘whereby they express themselves in such elegancies as neither by Hebrew or Greek, or any other language how elegant so ever can be expressed.  Besides, whereas the Hebrew is harsh and rugged, the Chinese appears the most sweet and smooth language of all others throughout the whole world at this day known.’  P. Premare, who was missionary and sinologist and had a right to speak with authority, becomes quite enthusiastic on the sub-ject of this language.  Chinese Grammar, he says, is for the most part free from the thorns which ours presents, but still it has its rules, and there is not in the world a richer language, nor one which has reigned so long."

Click This Link to see more photos of Cynthia Borgman, her Gulangyu grave, death certificate, letters, etc. And if you have any photos or material about members of the Amoy Mission, whether Chinese or foreign (including their descendants), please share it with us.

By the way, I just saw that Cynthia's sister, Alida Borgman Vermeer, born March 15, 1893 in Sioux City, died 71 years later--still in Sioux City. She had married Ed Vermeer, a farmer, on Feb. 16, 1917. I wonder if the Vermeer's were any relation to the Vandermeers, who for 3 generations served in the Amoy Mission?

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill 
P.S. If you have my Amazon eBook, Discover Xiamen (600+ pages about Xiamen and Southern Fujian), it would really help if you could leave even a 2 or 3 line review! Thanks).

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com