More on my Ph.D. research

Some of my Ph.D. research material was missionary writing.  I did some research at the United Church archives near the U. of T. campus. (The Methodists, later the United Church, took over a mission from David Livingstone's London Mission Society shortly before the revolution of 1912.) 

The Protestant missions in Sichuan came together to form an organization for joint efforts.  I don't remember the exact name, but they had a great motto: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." (The NDP should adopt that motto!) One of the things they did was put out a monthly journal, but after the Japanese started a full-scale war in 1937 there was such a paper shortage that they had to print it on tissue-like paper that could only be printed on one side!

One book I read was Test Tubes and Dragon Scales, written by someone who'd been a medical missionary in Chongqing in the 1930s.  He mentioned a colourful if shady foreign businessman, but not by name.  But I guessed that he was probably G.D. Lichfield because he had a motor-car in the city before anyone else did!

After finishing my thesis I actually went on a tour of China, which included Chongqing.  The city was smaller than I'd imagined it, of course. (Just like when you meet celebrities they're never as tall as you expect, except for basketball players and models.) One interesting thing in today's Chongqing is that they have a network of sidewalks that go over the street!  We should get something like that in Toronto too.

I just read that the Chinese are making a movie about the Japanese bombing of Chongqing, the Nationalist Chinese capital, between 1938 and 1943. (It was comparable to the Blitz of London, including death tolls.) It'll star Bruce Willis.

If this subject interests you, my thesis has been posted online.  It's at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ56244.pdf