Invaluable chronicle of information shared among Western missionaries in China from 1867 to 1941

The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal is the longest-lived English-language publication dating from the turbulent period of 19th-century China. It was published continually from 1868 until Pacific War hostilities ultimately led to cessation of its publication in 1941. It was launched as a platform for the exchange of information between missionaries and discussion of missionary tasks, as well as to foster understanding of Chinese culture and promotion of missionary work. The detail and depth of many articles that appeared in its pages over the years, supplemented by hand-sketched drawings and photographs, and the precise statistical figures it records chronicle more than seven decades of observations and insights into China by Western-born missionaries, and provide researchers with an invaluable first-hand view of near-modern Chinese history and life.

This database comprises the result of collaboration between the Christianity and China Research Center and the National Taiwan University Press to collect and re-assemble a complete set of The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal issues from 1868 to 1941, as well as the single year publication of its predecessor, The Missionary Recorder: A Repository of Intelligence from Eastern Missions and a Medium of General Information from 1867. To this complete set of content has been added The Chinese Recorder Index: A Guide to Christian Missions in Asia, 1867-1941 in two volumes to allow researchers to topically search the more than 50,000 pages of historical information.

This republication of The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal in digital form is unprecedented worldwide for featuring 1) all 72 years of issue, 2) the cleanest and clearest scanned images of the original printed text, and 3) the CRI Search Engine, which allows researchers to conduct searches of the full text and index via the Internet using key words, gaining immediate access to a scanned image of the page containing the searched item. The faceted classification automatic statistical and key-word truncation features of the CRI search engine allow enhanced precision and convenience in finding meaningful search results and locating pertinent text, making this database indispensible compared to other similarly historical information collections.

• Abundant and precious historical photographs, sketches and maps chronicling in detail people, buildings and conditions of the people.
• Not limited to missionary history in China; content includes local history, education, medical treatment, society, history, culture and external relations of China during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Discussion of various cultural challenges for missionaries, such as Confucian thought, translation of the Chinese canonical literature, Chinese etiquette, etc.
• Difficulties encountered in missionary work, such as launching religious activities in China, problems with translation from Chinese to English and Romanization, maintaining missionary health and discussion of dwellings.
• Statistical information and discussion of missionary postings in China: number of baptisms, consecrations, missionary school students, graduates, etc.
• Discussion of Western missionary work in Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Southwest Asia and the Pacific, as well as Africa and North America.
• Discussion of major events and issues pertaining to Chinese society, such as minutes of the 1877, 1890 and 1907 General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China and major protestant church events, withdrawal of education rights, anti-Christian movements, anti-Opium movements, etc.
• Missionary information and their travelogues and acquired knowledge.
• Information about Protestant publications of various eras.

• 1-72 vols. The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal (1868-1941)
• 1vol. The Missionary Recorder: A Repository of Intelligence from Eastern Missions, and a Medium of General Information (1867)
• 2vol. Chinese Recorder Index: A Guide to Christian Missions in Asia 1867‒1941( Complied by Kathleen L. Lodwick, reprint edition, published by agreement with Rowman & Littlefield Publishers through the Chinese Connection Agency, a division of Yao Enterprises, LLC.)

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