HOW THE ASSOCIATION CAME 
 
 TO FOOCHOW 
 
 National Board 
 
 Young Womens Christian Associations of the United States 
 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City 
 1914 
 
How the Association Came to Foochow 
 
 Geographical 
 
 For those as yet unacquainted with the geography of the nation which 
 holds the foremost place in the world toda3% it may be stated that Foochow 
 is on the eastern coast of China midway between Shanghai and Hongkong. 
 It is the capital of Fukien Province, a territory isolated from the other 
 provinces by ranges of mountains to the northwest and south. Its coast 
 line is rugged and broken with many islands. 
 
 Physical Conditions 
 
 Foochow is in the latitude of southern Florida. Its climate includes a 
 beautiful fall, and early winter; a cold, rainy January and February; a short 
 and delightful spring, and a long, hot summer. The thermometer is never 
 low but the cold is damp and penetrating. During the hot season calling is 
 undesirable from the standpoint of the secretary and of the Chinese. The 
 natural scenery of Foochow is of the most beautiful in China, with semi- 
 tropic vegetation and fields that yield three crops in one year. Foochow is 
 divided into two distinct sections, the old city and the island. These are 
 connected by a suburb reaching from the wall of the city to the bridge of 
 “Ten Thousand Ages” which joins the island to the mainland. The city is 
 walled. The suburb is one long street with shops on either hand, while the 
 island is the home of the larger number of foreigners and several large 
 mission schools. 
 
 2 
 
Historical 
 
 It was during the visit of the national secretary of the Young Men’s 
 Christian Association that a request came from the young women at the 
 Girls’ Boarding School at Foochow to be organized into a society as the boys’ 
 school had been, and so in 1899 the first student branch in the Foochow 
 Methodist Girls’ Boarding School came into existence. 
 
 In 1907 the national secretary of the Young Women’s Christian Associa- 
 tion of China was invited to Foochow to conduct a series of evangelistic 
 meetings in this Association. The meetings were concluded and an Asso- 
 ciation had been organized, a day’s journey inland. 
 
 It was midnight and the national secretary was returning to Shanghai. 
 Miss Bonafield, a member of the National Committee of China, and the 
 secretary were seated on the ancient bunding along the river waiting for 
 the usually belated steamer tender. The lapping of the water against the 
 fern-grown masonry broke the quiet of the moonlit night. Within that hour 
 was given to those women faith to believe that there might be held in China 
 a conference for women students. And so it came to pass that through the 
 efforts of Miss Bonafield the conference was planned. It was to be held at 
 Kuliang, in the mountains, ten miles east of Foochow. 
 
 First Conference 
 
 As guests at the first conference there were four young women from the 
 region of the Yangtse River, that great stream which is the pulse of the 
 commercial life of Central China. It is of interest to know that their 
 attendance was met with apprehension because of the fear that these young 
 women might bring revolutionary ideas to the students of Foochow. West- 
 erners feared the spread of radical national consciousness which even then 
 
 3 
 
was making itself felt in China. The appeal made by these young women 
 from Central China, by their Christ-like modesty and spiritual power, led one 
 of the ladies who met them socially to inquire : “Where do you keep your 
 
 dynamite?” This was in 1907. It was in 1911 that a group of earnest and 
 
 overzealous young women of Foochow were the subject of anxious prayers 
 and petitions in Shanghai ! They had come with the avowed purpose of 
 being bomb throwers in the revolutionary army! The authority of the 
 
 church, the pleadings of friends, at first availed nothing. It was in the 
 
 Shanghai city Association that the ringleaders of this group of enthusiasts 
 met those who finally dissuaded them from their purpose and who aided 
 the young women to return to Foochow and to their parents. A patriotism 
 of so terribly earnest and mistaken form startles the West but it is none 
 the less real. 
 
 Pioneering 
 
 It was in 1907, also, that a journey was taken by the secretary of China, 
 in a sedan chair, for two hundred miles from Foochow inland, through the 
 “Switzerland of China,” Fukien Province. The purpose of the trip was 
 to ascertain whether it was feasible to establish a traveling secretary for the 
 province. The journey was made to such places as the city of Ngu Cheng, 
 on its crumbling granite peninsula by the sea; to Hinghua, shut in by its 
 tremendous city wall, a city even yet disturbed by the revolutionary wave 
 which ran so high in this section of China; and on to Tehwa in the fastnesses 
 of the mountains where the zealous members of this tiny student branch with 
 their narrow horizon and limited resources have set an example to all the 
 Association work in China. This Association has disbanded because the 
 school is now discontinued. Their “world’s penny” or “world’s nickel,” as 
 
 4 
 
Up Mountains and Down Valleys 
 
we call it, was just double the amount decided upon by the National Com- 
 mittee as the apportionment for China. It was a group of girls from this 
 school who obtained the first Helen Gould Bibles. Their strongest work 
 was the preaching of the gospel in the villages around about. The hardships 
 of this journey showed conclusively the unwisdom of asking for a traveling 
 secretary for the province. It included not only the journey by chair but 
 thousands of stone steps up mountains and down steep valleys, across 
 uncertain bridges and through uninhabited mountain wastes. It also meant 
 sleeping in inns and shooting dangerous rapids. 
 
 Conference 
 
 The days of the first student conference were full of unusual events. 
 In the start the coolies who carried the chairs left blithely with the Chinese 
 young women. The foreign chaperon of the party because of her extra 
 weight was left without bearers, and she reached the mountains a long time 
 after the delegates had arrived. The entertainment for the conference was 
 provided by three Chinese ladies of means. They planned the meals, sent 
 a man to the city ten miles away for fresh food, providing an afternoon 
 luncheon of tea and boiled sweet potatoes. Several missionary friends 
 opened their summer bungalows for the residence of the delegates. 
 
 The conference meetings were not unlike the conferences we know. There 
 were Bible study, mission study and prayer hours. From the first, the 
 Chinese young women were made responsible for as much of the service as 
 they could carry. The Chinese young women conducted the quiet talks in 
 the afternoon. A committee of delegates had sole responsibility for the 
 music. Solos were sung by a Chinese young woman who is now studying 
 
 6 
 
music in the United States. Recreation was planned for but frustrated many 
 times by rains which in no way dampened the spirit of the conference. 
 
 The results formed a presage of what has occurred at each of the four 
 conferences that have since been held. The students felt not only a deep 
 interest in the winning of Chinese for Christ but their interest deepened 
 in purposefulness for service. This association of Chinese young women, 
 free to discuss their own problems and their opportunities for Christian 
 service, is invaluable. 
 
 Miss Dobbins 
 
 In 1908 Miss Ethel Dobbins, who had for years been the efficient secretary 
 at Illinois University, was sent to Foochow, but owing to unfortunate physi- 
 cal disability, Miss Dobbins, after a heroic battle to regain her strength, 
 was forced to return to America. In this little time Miss Dobbins had 
 formed helpful and hopeful relationships with missionaries and Chinese. 
 
 Student Life in Foochow 
 
 The Christian Girls’ Schools are among the oldest in China. Three of 
 them stand out as especially important. The Church Missionary Society Girls’ 
 School (English) is the largest girls’ school in China. The American Metho- 
 dist Girls’ School is in two departments : The Girls’ Boarding School and 
 The Woman’s College, each of which has a student branch of the Young 
 Women’s Christian Association. These two schools are on the island. 
 
 At Ponasang, where the secretaries of the Association reside, is the 
 splendid Girls’ School of the American Board of Missions (Congregational). 
 Besides these there are other Christian schools, notable among which is the 
 
 7 
 
On the Island 
 
 C. M. S. Girls' School 
 
 The City Beyond 
 
high-class Girls’ School of the Zenana Mission (English), The Girls’ School 
 for the Blind and a large school for girls of non-Christian parentage 
 (English). 
 
 The Government Girls’ Schools are largely within the old city. There 
 are also many private schools. The Government has industrial, normal and 
 high schools. Some of the students are boarders but most of them day 
 pupils. Occasionally one school visits another, or is allowed to go in a 
 body to attend some notable public gathering. For the most part the interests 
 of the students remain either in their own homes or are centered about a 
 few friends, possibly a teacher. The esprit de corps and school spirit are 
 very little developed. The Association work, reaching into several schools, 
 will be a basis upon which young women may be brought into fellowship, 
 giving some of the helpful stimuli which makes for so much in Western 
 college life. It will afford to students a conversational topic that will take 
 them beyond the confines of their environment and text-books. The Chinese 
 woman’s mind when once awakened is apt to look below the surface to find 
 the underlying purpose in that which interests them. 
 
 The women students in Foochow today may be characterized by two 
 words — “freedom” and “restlessness.” Foochow was the first city in the 
 nation to accord publicly to girl students the privilege of walking upon the 
 streets without molestation. The men of Foochow have conceded to its 
 educated women this right, which is yet to come to the women in all the 
 cities except the ports. 
 
 Delay 
 
 The hopes and promises raised by Miss Dobbins made the community 
 more eager than ever for a secretary and repeated inquiries were sent to 
 
 9 
 
Off for a Call through Crowded Streets 
 
 10 
 
national headquarters as to her successor. It seemed impossible to secure one. 
 Canton organized itself. The national committee was obliged to send a 
 secretary there while Foochow waited. The young women of the Girls’ 
 School had grown to greater strength. The Woman’s College of South China 
 was organized and a branch was started in the preparatory department of 
 this college. There are in the Foochow schools three young women who 
 have been educated in America, who are teaching in the schools, and one 
 physician with foreign training. All these have been repeatedly urged to 
 address public gatherings and all are highly esteemed by the officials and 
 gentry of the city. 
 
 Coincidence 
 
 The circumstances which led the China National Committee to send secre- 
 taries to Foochow show once again God’s leading in the work in China. In 
 March, 1913, Mr. Sherwood Eddy had been in China, holding a series of 
 evangelistic meetings for men. He was urged to give one talk to women ; 
 over two thousand Chinese girls and women came to the meetings, and five 
 hundred signed cards stating their desire to study the Bible. The National 
 Committee heard the report of the meeting and knew that extra workers 
 would be needed to conserve its results — they felt that they could no longer 
 delay in sending secretaries to Foochow. A special meeting of the Committee 
 was called and it was decided to offer to send Miss Helen Crane, of Bryn 
 Mawr, who has just arrived in China (designated for Shanghai) to Foochow 
 instead, and to send Miss Edith Wells, of Smith College, who had been for 
 three years in North China, to study the situation and give aid in the imme- 
 diate crisis. A letter to this effect was sent to Foochow. 
 
 n 
 
On the same day that the National Committee met, a committee of 
 women in Foochow representing the various nations met and voted to send 
 an appeal to the National Committee for at least one Association secretary. 
 The two letters crossed on the way, and on the receipt of a telegram from 
 Foochow the two secretaries sailed for that city. 
 
 A Valuable Opportunity Lost 
 
 On their arrival at Foochow the two secretaries were given immediate 
 opportunity to speak to students in the six largest government girls’ 
 schools and in four mission schools for girls. The Association work as 
 conducted in other parts of China was explained and women were asked to 
 enter Bible classes. A disappointingly small proportion of the women who 
 had signed cards for Bible study really joined the Bible classes. Of five 
 hundred men who were actually in Bible classes after the men’s meeting, 
 two hundred and fifty have been received into the Christian church. The 
 difference in results can be explained by the fact that the Young Women’s 
 Christian Association came to the field after the crisis had been reached. 
 The Young Men’s Christian Association had been nine years on the field, had 
 thorough preparation for their meetings and a real organized “follow-up 
 plan.” Thus this particular time of opportunity passed, but there remains 
 yet much that may be accomplished. 
 
 Looking to Organization 
 
 An Advisory Committee of Chinese and foreign ladies has been appointed 
 to act until organization can be formally effected. Miss Crane is engaged in 
 the study of the Foochow language. Miss Wells, who speaks the Mandarin, 
 
 12 
 
is teaching a class of Manchu women. There was in Foochow, as in all 
 capital cities of China, a “banner” of Manchu clansmen; they were left utterly 
 without support by the political upheaval and the Christian church has been 
 their comforter. A church of two hundred and fifty Manchus has grown up 
 since the revolution. 
 
 The secretaries are busy at least three afternoons a week calling either 
 in schools or in Chinese homes. A call in China means the expenditure of 
 five to ten times the amount of time ihat it takes in the United States, but it 
 affords the only personal contact possible with many Chinese women. 
 
 Women's Activities 
 
 There is a group of married ladies, Chinese and foreigners, who call 
 themselves “The Mutual Improvement Society” ; to this select group the 
 secretaries — Miss Wells and Miss Crane — have been admitted. 
 
 In South China, contrary to the custom of the North, women do very 
 much of the heavy work out-of-doors. There is a distinctive class of women 
 called “field women” whose headdress consists of three swords with huge 
 earrings four inches across. There are women whose occupation is the 
 rowing of boats on which passengers, singly or in groups, are transferred 
 from point to point. There are women who take their full burden of work 
 in heavy industry. They carry merchandise, while other women may be 
 seen beating the gilded foil which is pounded into thin sheets for idol 
 money, hammering wrought-iron, sawing bone for combs, in short, they are 
 found to a limited number in almost every industry in which men are 
 engaged. For these laboring women the Association will probably be unable 
 to be of service for years to come. As modern conditions are introduced, 
 the industries now carried on in the homes will be segregated in factories, 
 
 13 
 
“The Blind Receive Their Sight" 
 
 14 
 
some will disappear and "woman’s sphere” will De reshaped. It is apparent 
 that with the enlisting of women of leisure and young women from the 
 government schools there will come an indigenous movement for the study 
 of evolving conditions for the uplift of their countrywomen. 
 
 Immediacy 
 
 Miss Wells’ appointment to Foochow lasts only until her furlough in 1915, 
 and for the city of more than a million at least two other secretaries must 
 be sent immediately in order to conserve the work already begun. The 
 crisis of the women of government schools is only one of the many that might 
 be cited. Such tremendous opportunities are evidencing themselves from 
 month to month in the republic of China. Those on the field are imperilled in 
 their activity because of the tremendous pressure of the things they must 
 leave undone. The two thousand students of last year will have become four 
 thousand before the Association is fully ready to serve them. Chinese 
 leaders must be found to do what they alone can accomplish. America must 
 do its part in sending women to Foochow for this work which God has laid 
 upon the Association in that city. 
 
 15