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

The Three Trees: a poem from South Fukien: Missionary Poems: 1925-1951, William Angus

Mr. David Andrews, author of "South Fukien: Missionary Poems: 1925-1951, William Angus".  I , has shared "The Three Trees," William Angus' favorite poem. I've lived in Xiamen (former Amoy), of Fujian Province, since 1988, and his poems bring to life both the place and the people. Amoy has a rugged beauty that a 150 years ago many compared to Scotland (and a Scotsman said the same to me 3 weeks ago). But it's the people one falls in love with--the people whose dogged perseverance and good humor has gotten them through so many centuries of trials and tribulations. Enjoy!
    Dr. Bill, Xiamen Univ. MBA Center; author of Discover Xiamen & Fujian Adventure.  

                                           The Three Trees
Whenever I visit Law-khe in Ping-ho County
And walk along the road between Tham-phoe

And Hong-thau-poan, I like to watch the river

Play at acrobatics in the gorge below.

Especially at a place where three pine trees

Mark a path to a small ravine to the right.  I often

Pause a minute or two to see the water

First somersault in white foam over rocks

Then slip demurely deep green into pools.

It has a cooling, restful effect on me.

The path to the right leads up past a few farmhouses

To a big, square house with a courtyard in the middle,

The house of the Gaw family, one of the first

Two families in the area to become Christian.

Before the father died, I often went there

And spent the night, and sometime the next morning

They would call everyone in, and I would hold

A communion service.  I would stay for lunch

And after lunch would walk to Hong-thau-poan.

After the father died, I went there more seldom

For the younger folk were able to walk to church.

The eldest son served as deacon for several years

And then was elected elder, a taciturn fellow,

Forty-five years old.

                                            About six months

After the election, I came again to the church

To install the new officers.  I asked for Gaw.

The men looked at each other.  “Gaw’s not home.”

“Then we’ll have to postpone his installation

Until I come again,” I said.

                                             They answered,

“We don’t think we ought to install him.  He’s in jail.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

                                           “He sold stolen goods.”

“What did he have to sell stolen goods for?” I asked.

“He has plenty of money.”

                                          “Not anymore,”

They answered.  “He speculated and went broke.

Paper money was depreciating fast,

And he borrowed a hundred thousand at ten percent.

Ten percent a month, and bought water buffaloes.

He held the buffaloes, but then sold at a loss

Because his creditors came after him.

He was supposed to pay interest every month,

And he had to sell his own buffaloes besides

In order to pay the interest.

                                          “At that time,

There was a rascal in the farmhouse below Gaw

Who was head of a gang that was stealing buffaloes.

Because Gaw’s house had an inside court, this fellow

Asked Gaw to let him sleep in one of the rooms

And keep the stolen cattle in the courtyard.

Gaw knew the cattle were stolen; his brothers didn’t.

They thought he was buying them.  Gaw was persuaded

To sell the stolen cattle for a commission.

People became suspicious.  Soldiers came

And there was a battle at the farmhouse below,

But the thieves stood the soldiers off.  Then we had rain,

A flood.  The thieves escaped.  Gaw’s relatives,

His uncle, his brothers, his cousins, and their families,

All moved out.  Then the soldiers came back and burned

The farmhouse below and half of Gaw’s house, and Gaw

Was caught and put in jail.”

                                               “I’m sorry to hear

All this about Gaw,” I said.

                                               “There’s other news,”

They said.  “Gaw’s sister-in-law was drowned in the flood.

A good woman, she was the daughter of Lim, the deacon.

When she heard the shooting and learned what was going on

And that Gaw was implicated, she wouldn’t wait

For her husband to come home, but started right in

To move their stuff out.  She shouldered the burdens herself,

And carried the things to some friends half a mile away.

Then it began to rain hard and they tried to get her

To stop, but she wouldn’t stop.  She was weeping and angry

And said she wouldn’t live one day more in a house

With thieves and bandits.  When the floods began.

She had to cross that little brook up there,

But by the time she got to it with her load

It was raging among the boulders.  A couple of men

Were standing there, afraid to go through the water;

Though it was only six feet from side to side,

The gully was three feet deep.  They tried to stop her,

But she was obsessed and walked into the torrent.  In one spit,

She was swept off down the ravine and battered naked

On the great boulders standing there.  They found her body

Floating at the bend in the river just below town,

With trees and lumber from bridges and wrecked houses.”

I murmured sympathy.  One of the men said then,

“It was sad, pastor.  But, you know, right after that

Something funny happened that made the whole village laugh.

It was market day.  Someone went to a young man

Who lived up the river and said, ‘They’ve found the body

Of a young woman.  It looks like your wife.’

He ran down to the river bank, took one glance,

And cried out, ‘It is!  It is!’  He sat down on the sand,

Took up the body, embraced it, and wept aloud.

After a while he went back to the market

To arrange for the body’s removal.  But Lim, the deacon,

Had also been told.  He recognized his daughter

And had the body taken to his home.

“When the young man came back, the body was gone.  He was frantic.

He asked people where it had gone to.  Then a friend asked,

‘Are you sure that was your wife’s body you saw?

I’ve just come from the village.  Your wife was there

Safe and sound when I left.’  Bewildered, he went home.

It was true.  His wife was sitting outside the front door,

Suckling the baby.  She’d already heard the news

And scolded him for making a fool of himself.

And everybody teased him about it.”

                                                Some months later

When I came again, I asked what had happened to Gaw.

“His brothers,” they said, “were able to raise enough money

To get him out of jail.  The other man,

The leader of the thieves, had killed a man.

His case was harder to settle.  But he had money,

Silver dollars hidden away, and he was able

To buy his way back here again, even though

The relatives of the man he had killed had been trying

For months to get the government to take action.

But they were poor villagers.  They had no influence.

“So he came back, went to market bold as you please,

Stood around, talked to people to show he wasn’t afraid;

He could buy the officials off.  But he might have known

The murdered man’s relatives would be unsatisfied

To see him get off scot-free.  Along toward dusk

He started home.  You remember the three pine trees?

He took the path there and he was ambushed and killed.”

About William Angus

William R. Angus, Jr. was a Reformed Church missionary in Amoy and on the Fukien mainland in the years named, and after expulsion worked in the Philippines.  He wrote over 600 poems on the Fukienese people of his time, 60 of which are collected in a 2015 edition co-published by MerwinAsia Publishing and University of Hawaii Press.

I edited the collection and provided a historical Introduction and Glossary.  David R. Angus of Lansing, MI, the poet's son, wrote the Preface.

I am enclosing a press release for the collection and two files of excerpts.  I hope you will find them interesting and lend us some aid in raising the book's profile among readers, students, and perhaps missionaries.  Some links to web pages about the book are at the bottom of this message.

Best regards,

David Andrews      
                                                                                                                         

                 PRESS  RELEASE

Publication of South Fukien: Missionary Poems 1925-1951, By WilliamAngus

Edited with an Introduction by David Andrews 

Preface by David Angus

Portland, ME: MerwinAsia Publishers, 2015 

China Missionary Poet Published 64 Years after Expulsion

Lansing, MI, April 1, 2015

Through four decades as a Reformed Church missionary in China’s Fukien (today, Fujian) Province, William Angus produced more than 600 narrative poems.  What emerged is pointedly not A Nice Missionary’s Poetry.

In spring of 2015 MerwinAsia Publishers, in association with the University of Hawaii Press, releases 60 of William Angus’s verses under the title South Fukien: Missionary Poems, 1925-1951

Humane but hard-edged, Angus’s verse depicts the Fukienese through successive eras of trial: in China’s struggle toward modern government; through civil wars between Nationalist and Communist forces; under Japanese occupation in World War II; and during the Communist takeover at the end of the 1940s.

Written from actual incidents, in the voices of the storytellers, the poems are as vital as the Chinese people. Angus’s work combines historical reporting with folktale, and a sharp edge of moral ambiguity.  

David Angus, a retired educator in Lansing, MI, has waited decades to see his father’s poetry in print.

“My father traveled long distances in Fukien’s countryside—on foot, by boat, and by ancient, rickety bus.  He knew peasants and merchants, bandits and soldiers.  He heard their stories and he valued their experiences,” David reflects.  “He knew they were together in some of the world’s most troubled times.”

During World War II, Angus’s wife, Joyce and their three children—David Angus among them—were interned by the Japanese before repatriation to America.  In 1951 William and Joyce were forced, like all missionaries, to leave China by the new Peoples’ Republic.

“When my father died in 1984, he left behind a body of remarkable work which he edited and revised several times,” says David.  “These poems represent his personal response to the Chinese he lived and worked among.  The South Fukiencollection’s subtitle, Missionary Poems, offers a hope that his verse will still bear witness to the effect of Western evangelism on the daily lives and values of the Chinese people.”    

South Fukien is edited by independent scholar David Andrews, who provides a historical Introduction and Glossary.  David Angus supplies a Foreword recalling missionary life in China. 

The collection was assembled and annotated from papers in the collections of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, NJ, and the Joint Archives of Hope College and Holland, MI.  “The poems were an exciting and historically important discovery, too compelling to remain unpublished,” says David Andrews. 

William Angus’s poems are dispatches from his time to ours, showing the Chinese as a people much like us—hoping to adjust to a world of rapid change, seeking comfort in a Western religion that offers faith, justice, and love. His accounts of spiritual strength and moral failings present unique perspectives into a people’s behavior and mores under crisis, temptation and change.

“Writing with objectivity, sensitivity, compassion, and uncompromising directness, Angus does not pretend,” notes Dr. Paul Vender Meer, Professor Emeritus at California State University-Fresno.  Dr. Ann Kuzdale, Associate Professor of History at Chicago State University, says, “Angus is a keen witness to events that most readers know superficially.  South Fukien is a valuable addition to world history and religious studies courses, and to transnational and Pacific Rim history.

The Amoy Mission Pages

South Fukien: Missionary Poems: 1925-1951, William Angus

An interesting note today from the Author of "South Fukien: Missionary Poems: 1925-1951, William Angus".  I read some of the poems and they really brought to life the place and the people of Amoy (now Xiamen), of Fujian Province. I even recognized some of the notorious characters--a bandit chief--in one poem, though the name was changed. Insightful, and fun. Below are the author's note and Press Release.
Click Here for "The Three Trees", William Angus' favorite poem. 
Dr. Bill, Xiamen University MBA Center (since 1988); Author of Discover Xiamen &Fujian Adventure.

Note from David Andrews, May 27, 2015

I have enjoyed reading your site while doing research for my book project, South Fukien:Missionary Poems 1925-1951,  by William Angus.

William R. Angus, Jr. was a Reformed Church missionary in Amoy and on the Fukien mainland in the years named, and after expulsion worked in the Philippines.  He wrote over 600 poems on the Fukienese people of his time, 60 of which are collected in a 2015 edition co-published by MerwinAsia Publishing and University of Hawaii Press.

I edited the collection and provided a historical Introduction and Glossary.  David R. Angus of Lansing, MI, the poet's son, wrote the Preface.

I am enclosing a press release for the collection and two files of excerpts.  I hope you will find them interesting and lend us some aid in raising the book's profile among readers, students, and perhaps missionaries.  Some links to web pages about the book are at the bottom of this message.

Best regards,

David Andrews 

                                                                                                                              

                 PRESS  RELEASE

Publication of South Fukien: Missionary Poems 1925-1951, By WilliamAngus

Edited with an Introduction by David Andrews 

Preface by David Angus

Portland, ME: MerwinAsia Publishers, 2015 

China Missionary Poet Published 64 Years after Expulsion

Lansing, MI, April 1, 2015

Through four decades as a Reformed Church missionary in China’s Fukien (today, Fujian) Province, William Angus produced more than 600 narrative poems.  What emerged is pointedly not A Nice Missionary’s Poetry.

In spring of 2015 MerwinAsia Publishers, in association with the University of Hawaii Press, releases 60 of William Angus’s verses under the title South Fukien: Missionary Poems, 1925-1951

Humane but hard-edged, Angus’s verse depicts the Fukienese through successive eras of trial: in China’s struggle toward modern government; through civil wars between Nationalist and Communist forces; under Japanese occupation in World War II; and during the Communist takeover at the end of the 1940s.

Written from actual incidents, in the voices of the storytellers, the poems are as vital as the Chinese people. Angus’s work combines historical reporting with folktale, and a sharp edge of moral ambiguity.  

David Angus, a retired educator in Lansing, MI, has waited decades to see his father’s poetry in print.

“My father traveled long distances in Fukien’s countryside—on foot, by boat, and by ancient, rickety bus.  He knew peasants and merchants, bandits and soldiers.  He heard their stories and he valued their experiences,” David reflects.  “He knew they were together in some of the world’s most troubled times.”

During World War II, Angus’s wife, Joyce and their three children—David Angus among them—were interned by the Japanese before repatriation to America.  In 1951 William and Joyce were forced, like all missionaries, to leave China by the new Peoples’ Republic.

“When my father died in 1984, he left behind a body of remarkable work which he edited and revised several times,” says David.  “These poems represent his personal response to the Chinese he lived and worked among.  The South Fukiencollection’s subtitle, Missionary Poems, offers a hope that his verse will still bear witness to the effect of Western evangelism on the daily lives and values of the Chinese people.”    

South Fukien is edited by independent scholar David Andrews, who provides a historical Introduction and Glossary.  David Angus supplies a Foreword recalling missionary life in China. 

The collection was assembled and annotated from papers in the collections of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, NJ, and the Joint Archives of Hope College and Holland, MI.  “The poems were an exciting and historically important discovery, too compelling to remain unpublished,” says David Andrews. 

William Angus’s poems are dispatches from his time to ours, showing the Chinese as a people much like us—hoping to adjust to a world of rapid change, seeking comfort in a Western religion that offers faith, justice, and love. His accounts of spiritual strength and moral failings present unique perspectives into a people’s behavior and mores under crisis, temptation and change.

“Writing with objectivity, sensitivity, compassion, and uncompromising directness, Angus does not pretend,” notes Dr. Paul Vender Meer, Professor Emeritus at California State University-Fresno.  Dr. Ann Kuzdale, Associate Professor of History at Chicago State University, says, “Angus is a keen witness to events that most readers know superficially.  South Fukien is a valuable addition to world history and religious studies courses, and to transnational and Pacific Rim history.

The Amoy Mission Pages

Fujian Adventure eBook $1.99 special on Amazon! 魅力福建

With over 520 pages and almost 700 photos, many by Fujian's top photographers, Fujian Adventure is now an eBook on Amazon for $1.99 promotional price (regularly $5.99). Click Here to download a copy and if you enjoy it, please rate it and share the link with your friends。

If you (like me), don't have a Kindle, download  Free Amazon Reading Apps to read it on Android and Apple devices,or Mac and Windows computers.

Thanks so much for helping to get the word out. I hope to have some of my other 11 books online this summer. 

Enjoy Amoy! 

Dr. Bill 

Amazon description of Fujian Adventure.
Columbus' goal was not a New World but a shortcut to India and to Marco Polo’s fabled Zayton in Fujian, China. Columbus never made it to Zayton, but you can.

Over 500 pages and almost 700 photos, many by award-winning Chinese photographers, bring to life the people and places of Fujian (Fukien), the cradle of Chinese seafaring (200 B.C.), start of the Maritime Silk Route, port of departure for Marco Polo and ibn Battuta, and ancestral home of most overseas Chinese.

Meet Admiral Zhenghe, the "real" Sinbad; the ancient Southern Shaolin Kung Fu Temple’s youthful abbot; the Hui'an maidens who cover their heads, bare their bellies, and only sleep with their husbands 3 nights a year; the firewalkers who dance across the flames bearing heavy idols; melancholy Miss Mo who became the sea goddess Mazu; Zayton’s famous marionette makers; the Anxi farmers who produced the tea tossed overboard during the Boston Tea Party. Visit China’s first Protestant church and the planet’s last Manichean temple. Explore Gulangyu, the Roaring 20s’ “richest square mile on earth,” which even today has over 1,000 “Amoy Deco” mansions. Discover the secret of Hakka roundhouses that Nixon and the CIA thought were missile silos, and then visit the nearby Amoy tiger preserve. Enjoy scenic Sanming, with China's 4th largest gem beds, China’s largest sleeping Buddha, Ming Dynasty villages, enchanting caverns and underground lakes. Marvel at Wuyi Mountain’s 2,000-year-old Min Palace, and the Eden-like biological diversity that drew French naturalists in the 1700s to study the rare plants, king cobras and 33 foot pythons.

And of course there’s the Fujian food. Moliere said "Man should eat to live, not eat to live," but Dr. Bill says, "Moliere never ate Chinese food—especially Fujian food.”

Locals say Fujian is “8 parts mountain, 1 part water, 1 part field”. This torturous terrain not only gave rise to an innovative and tough people but also to more local dialects and greater cultural diversity—including cuisines—than any other province. Every hill, valley and river has a story behind it, and Dr. Bill invites you to explore them.

Author Bill Brown, Prof. of Organizational Behavior and Business Strategy at School of Management, Xiamen University, was Fujian's first foreign permanent resident and has driven over 200,000 km. around China,even through the Gobi Desert and Tibet,幸福福建),but still considers Fujian the most fascinating province for foreigners. In addition to textbooks such as Art of Business Warfare (Beijing University Press), he has written ten books about Fujian. He has also written and hosted several TV documentaries, including a 62-episode mini-series, "Fujian in a Foreigner's Eyes". In addition to teaching MBA, he hosts the weekly "Xingfu Fujian"《幸福福建》。
潘维廉/潘威廉,厦门大学管理学院福建省

 Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com

Helen Joldersma Amoy

I was blessed to be able to share last Sunday in Holland Michigan's Hope Church, which was home to many who served in the Amoy Mission.  When I shared the story of the talented young nurse Helen Joldersma, who tragically died after only two years in Amoy, a man in the back introduced himself as Dan Joldersma, and the next day sent me a scan of a small booklet that Tena Holkeboer had written about Helen's life!

 
I had never been able to find anything about Helen, except the Goble News article about her leaving for Amoy, brief references to her in a couple of missionary's letters, and a couple of photos of her in Amoy (and of her grave at the Gulangyu foreign cemetery).

Dan's PDF file is too large to upload, so I will upload it as a text file when I have time to edit the OCR.  Below I attach what little info I have about Helen.

Amoy Bill (amoybill @ gmail.com )

  
Humorous anecdote about Helen from Alma Vandermeer letter, 

Helen Joldersma's Grave, Amoy

Alma Vander Meer: on January 16, 1927, wrote, "Strong anti-foreign and anti-Christian feeling. There were processions and slogans in Amoy and on Kulangsu, and billboards and big posters against foreign governments. On Christmas day a long procession carried banners and slogans. Helen Joldersma, who had recently arrived in China from America, thought the students were celebrating Christmas, so she marched along, smiling and happy. Fortunately, Edna Beekman happened to see her, and she quickly pulled her out and called her back into San-loh, the unmarried missionary residence on Kulangsu….”

From Rose Talman’s memoirs (Oral China Hands Project): "Following Mary Louise's last illness, Helen Joldersma, our new nurse was helping us and from our house, she went to Chiang Chou to a Mission Meeting. We think she may have eaten something at our house as her fatal illness started almost at once. Her of death was a terrible blow to us all; also  that of Dr. VandeWeg a short time later with whom we were associated in Tong-an. It is harder to understand when such capable and needed people are taken from our midst. The blow seems harder someway."

Further Info about Helen Joldersma from former Amoy Mission folks.  In 2009, I queried friends about Helen Joldersma, and received these emails from Gary Veenschoten and Joan Hill (read the links to learn more about their Amoy family history):

Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:26:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: girard veenschoten
Subject: Re: Helen Joldersma?
To: Joann hill 
Cc: William Brown

Dear Joann and Dr Bill
Yes.  I remember very well. We were holding Mission Meeting at Chang Chow [now Zhangzhou / 漳州]. Miss Joldersma became ill.  Over the course of a week she became worse and worse.  They took over my west bedroom at  our house and made it into an operation room.  I remember, her abdomen became very swollen and tense.  Finally, as a last resort the doctors decided to do an exploratory.  As I remember, Dr Bosch did the operation, assisted by Dr Clarence Holleman and Dr Hofstra.  I believe Miss Jean Neinhuis RN was the surgical nurse.  I remember they said her abdomen was covered inside by a board like layer of pus.  They closed her up  and did nothing more.  Everybody available assisted.  She was too sick to be taken to the hospital in Amoy.  The best methods available were inadequate. Afterward, she was taken to Kulangsu for burial.
Sincerely,
Gary Veenschoten

The Amoy Mission Pages

About Frank Eckerson, Amoy Missionary

The Amoy Mission Pages
About Frank Eckerson
Missionary to the Chinese in Fukien Province.
Written July 13, 2009 by Jack W. Hill, former missionary to Amoy , 1947-1950.

[Dr. Bill's note: many thanks to Dr. Jack for writing this about Frank Eckerson, who was quite the character (I've a NY Times article reporting him being shot by Chinese bandits; he still got around even after that!] Those of you who have other stories or anecdotes about folks in the Amoy Mission--please send them! My e-mail: Amoybill@gmail.com

We knew Frank Eckerson most of the time we were in Tong-An between the fall of 1947 and some time in the spring of 1950.

He welcomed us to Tong-an and, a few days after we arrived, he took me into the town of Tong’an introducing me to some Christian friends and merchants. Especially memorable –during one visit I was served two precious raw eggs in a bowl of hot sugar water which I dutifully downed. Not that I missed it, it was a delicacy that I never encountered again either in China or in the Philippines, where we also worked with the Chinese community.

Mr. Eckerson lived in a small old building within the compound of the church in the tiny village of Siang-tsun-thau about a quarter mile from our mission compound. The town of Tong-an was about a mile further east of our compound. Occasionally, I saw him professionally when the man working for him would come to summon me because Dr. Eckerson had passed out. I would quickly go to see him as he lay on a thin mattress on a shelf about three feet wide a good 30 inches above the floor level against one wall of the room.

He would indeed be unconscious for about 10 minutes. As he regained consciousness he would look at me speaking in Chinese, unaware then that I couldn’t understand what he was saying. As he became more aware he would switch to English. His pulse rate was very slow, which was the problem. He had Adam-Stokes syndrome and during those periods enough blood couldn’t get to his brain. I couldn’t do much for him and finally was able to convince the Communist Police Chief of Tong-an that he should be moved to the larger hospital [Hope Hospital] in Kulangsu which had more diagnostic equipment and medicine.

He died there a few months later.

He certainly was “his own person” in some ways. He never responded to our invitations to our mission station gatherings. But he would communicate often by sending his man “Friday” with a note. Always these notes were written in long-hand with very flowery notations and inventive abbreviations ( 4 = for). This took skill because the words were squeezed between holes that had been made by numerous bookworms which, over time, feasted on his paper supply.

When he walked, as he rarely did by the time I knew him, he did so by lifting his left foot higher than the right. He had a spring device to lift his left shoe because the bandit’s bullet, when he was shot years earlier, had passed through his left leg near the knee severing a nerve and leaving him with a foot-drop deformity.

He was an exceptionally gifted speaker so that, when on furlough, funds for his work were easily raised. At one point he secured a rather large printing press. He had it stored at his home, but I never saw it in operation –it may still have been in crates. He annoyed the rest of the Mission group because he got this equipment for his projects alone. The other missionaries followed the policy, determined together during the previous mission meetings, where the funds collected for the mission work were to go.

He was in his mid-70’s when we knew him. He had insisted on retiring and remaining on the field instead of living in the U.S. as the other missionaries did. He was there all during WWII and later. During the war the Japanese had seized the Fukien Province’s port cities and islands of Amoy and Kulangsu, but did not get on the mainland.

During the lean years of the war he had tried to get the local people to eat brown rice in order to avoid the vitamin deficiencies of polished rice. He failed in that attempt. Unpolished rice took too long to cook and used too much fuel. So he then bought nutritious shark livers for their oil which he distributed to the people --replacing cod- liver oil.

By the time we arrived in Tong-an and the small local village of Siang-tsun-thau in 1947,we didn’t see much of him. He no longer attended the local church services. Presumably he was able to listen from his dwelling nearby. Aside from taking me on that initial visit when I arrived and seeing him professionally when he had these attacks, our personal contacts were limited. We occasionally sent him some dishes that Joann cooked. For which his notes came back expressing his profuse gratitude. Joann, as a small child growing up in nearby ChangChow and based on his infrequent visits, remembers Frank Eckerson as a warm kind man with a very bad limp.

He was much-loved and respected by the Chinese people.

July 13, 2009
Jack W. Hill, M.D., Missionary
Reformed Church in America

Welcome to the Amoy Mission!

The Amoy Mission Pages

Welcome to the Amoy Mission Blog!   On the Amoy Mission pages of our Amoy Magic website (about Xiamen, formerly called Amoy, which has been the Brown Family home since 1988), I have probably 100 pages or more of material, and numerous photos, about the Amoy Mission.

'Read The Amoy Mission pages to learn why Xiamen was the Birthplace of Chinese Protestantism, with China's first Protestant church, and why the Amoy Mission was the most successful of Chinese Protestant missions.

We Need Your Help!   I am working on two new books, one entitled "Old Amoy in Foreigners' Eyes" (due out in October, 2009) and the other about the history of China's 1st Church, the Amoy Mission.  "Old Amoy" will have over 400 old images (photos, drawings, paintings, engravings) and excerpts from letters, journals, articles and books, from the 1500s to 1952.    If you have text or images you could share, please send them to me at amoybill@gmail.com  

The more I learn about the Amoy Mission, the more moved I am by the sacrifices that foreigners made over a 110 year period to lay the groundwork for the great changes we are seeing today.  But most of those who served in Amoy have gone Home, and have taught their stories with them!  Please share what you have, or can dig up--especially old photos.  And if you know people who lived here, interview them, write down their stories, and post them on the blog.

I am happy that I've received letters from descendants of many of the early pioneers (Doty, Abeel, Talmage, DeVelders, Veenschotens, etc.).  The more material I can add, the greater help the site and blog will be to others seeking to know more about the Amoy Mission, and the more we can appreciate those who went before us.

Thanks so much for your help!

Dr. Bill

Xiamen University