WOMEN LEADERS 
 
 OF 
 
 ' PRESENT DAY CHINA 
 
 CHINESE CHRISTIANS 
 WORTH KNOWING 
 
 WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS 
 508 Congregational House 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 have brought together in this leaflet biographical 
 * sketches of some of the younger Christian women in 
 present-day China, all of them products of our Congrega- 
 tional work or now associated with it. It is a matter for 
 pride among Congregationalists that we can claim Miss 
 Fan, the only woman executive secretary of the great 
 China National Council in which all denominations are 
 united for aggressive work. Not all of the women whose 
 stories appear here are as prominent as she, but each one 
 represents a type of Christian leadership. We have not 
 included any of those about whom Miss Margaret Burton 
 has written in "Notable Women of Modern China." For 
 life stories of eminent Chinese women physicians, such as 
 Dr. Mary Stone, Dr. Ida Kahn and Dr. Hii King Eng, 
 consult this valuable book which can be obtained from our 
 Loan Library. It is not easy to find biographical material 
 about interesting Chinese women, for they are not yet as 
 much in public and professional life as their Japanese sis- 
 ters. We hope, therefore, that this leaflet will meet a real 
 need in connection with the study of China. 
 
MRS. FENG, WIFE OF CHINA'S CHRISTIAN 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 HE name of General Feng, China's most famous 
 
 A Christian official, has become widely known in Amer- 
 ica and when he was married last spring many were in- 
 terested to know about the new partner he chose. That 
 she must be an educated woman and a Christian goes 
 without saying. That he insisted upon and turned, there- 
 fore, from a candidate of royal blood to marry Miss Li Te 
 Chuan, the daughter of a humble, illiterate farmer of 
 Tunghsien, North China. Her father and mother were 
 greatly concerned at first to think of how they could re- 
 ceive such a mighty man into their humble courtyard with 
 its donkeys, pigs and chickens. But they were not with- 
 out cause for family pride after all. Several of their rela- 
 tives had won the martyr's crown in Boxer days of 1900. 
 The story of the faith and martyrdom of her uncle, a 
 country pastor, and the influence of his prayers, left a 
 strong impress on this girl's life. 
 
 Our first picture of her is as the little school girl of nine 
 or ten, long, black braid hanging down over her cheap, 
 blue cotton coat, looking much like forty others in attend- 
 ance at the Goodrich Girls' School, Tunghsien. Next we 
 see a girl in her teens, happy in the privilege of going to 
 Peking for further education, first at Bridgman Academy, 
 where she was an officer in the school Y.W.C.A., a leader 
 in Sunday School work for non-Christian children, and 
 later at Yenching College. She early showed qualities of 
 leadership. During her college course she, with other 
 students, spent one summer carrying on a flood relief 
 school and during that same winter raised funds and con- 
 
 3 
 
ducted a school for poor children in the city. This was 
 good preparation for her work as teacher at Bridgman 
 Academy where we find her for two years after her col- 
 lege course was finished. 
 
 While serving later as pastor's assistant in our large 
 Congregational church in Peking, she gave much attention 
 to the work among students. That year the great student 
 convention was held in Peking, bringing student delegates 
 from all over the world, and Miss Li was very active in 
 planning for the reception and entertainment of this con- 
 vention. Preparation it seemed to be for the next call 
 which came to her — to become Student Work Secretary 
 in the Peking Y.W.C.A., which position she held until her 
 marriage. 
 
 As a bride, dressed in a black jacket, richly embroidered, 
 a gorgeous silk skirt of the traditional red, and red slip- 
 pers, a long, pink veil gathered into a huge rosette on top 
 of her head, is the way she appears to us in the next pic- 
 ture. Very sober she looks on this solemn occasion, 
 though we gather that this is not her natural expression. 
 "My mental picture of Miss Li is of a dimpled smile," 
 writes one of her missionary friends at Tunghsien; "she is 
 fat and jolly but she has a lot of dignity too." The bride- 
 groom, a tall, handsome, upright-looking man of forty- 
 one, is resplendent in blue uniform with many medals. 
 Red silk banners hang everywhere and the place is alive 
 with officials in gold lace and civilians with rich satin 
 garments. Observe the combination of Chinese wedding 
 customs and foreign usage: the bride and groom stand 
 together to receive congratulations. The bride steps be- 
 fore the groom when passing through a door. Te Chuan 
 looks very pale for she must realize something of the task 
 
 4 
 
ahead of her to be the helpmeet of this strong-willed, 
 energetic soldier and to mother his five children. But 
 she, too, knows her own mind and has courage to face 
 what the new life brings. 
 
 The story is told on good authority that one of General 
 Feng's wedding presents to her was a check for $1,000. 
 After some days of thought and prayer she quietly put the 
 whole amount into a fund being raised by the North China 
 Mission for the training of Chinese pastors. She and her 
 husband have the same ideals as to simplicity of life and 
 whole-hearted Christian service. 
 
 As wife of one of the highest military officials in the 
 country we find Mrs. Feng living at the Nan Yuan (South 
 Camp) about ten miles from Peking. Our latest picture 
 of her is on horseback, riding out with her husband of a 
 morning to review thousands of troops and later teaching 
 higher mathematics to a class of his staff-officers or super- 
 intending the wonderful welfare work this Christian gen- 
 eral has started for the wives of his hundreds of military 
 officers. Step by step she has been prepared for this high 
 position and she does not fail to recognize the part which 
 our mission schools have had in it. 
 
 5 
 
MISS FAN, FIELD SECRETARY OF THE 
 NATIONAL COUNCIL 
 
 TN 1922 the National Christian Conference, consisting of 
 one thousand delegates, was held in Shanghai. With a 
 Chinese chairman, the official language of the conference 
 Chinese, half the delegates Chinese, this gathering was 
 epoch-making in the history of God's Kingdom in China. 
 Out of it was formed the National Council for the Chris- 
 tian Church of China, consisting of one hundred members 
 representing every form of Protestant Christianity. To 
 make efficient the work of this Council it was decided to 
 appoint four secretaries, two foreign and two Chinese, 
 whose whole time should be given to representing the 
 Council at conferences, on commissions, traveling all over 
 China to encourage and help in the evangelistic plans of 
 the churches. Miss Fan Yii Jung of Peking was asked to 
 be the one woman secretary of the four chosen. Congre- 
 gationalists have reason to be proud that they educated 
 this Christian executive. 
 
 And who is Miss Fan? She came from Peking, from a 
 home where the father was a water-carrier and the mother 
 a hard-working sewing-woman. But that mother was de- 
 termined that her daughter should have what she herself 
 had longed for but could not get — education and a chance 
 to make her own life. So Yii Jung was sent to the school 
 at Tong Shih Kao. She did her part as a student and how 
 proud her mother was when she graduated from the 
 grades! But that was not enough, so she entered Bridg- 
 man Academy where she was one of the dependable, 
 earnest students. After the Academy came the two years' 
 normal work in Yenching College and then, to help her 
 
 6 
 
brothers and sister in their education, she taught for two 
 years in Bridgman Academy. Always she has had to win 
 her own way. Her summers were spent in hard study on 
 English while she also earned money in teaching Chinese 
 to one or two foreign friends. One summer she helped in 
 the translation and publication of a book of kindergarten 
 songs. 
 
 A position in editorial work for the Y. W. C. A. was of- 
 fered her and for some time she filled it acceptably. Then 
 came the longed-for chance to study in America and a 
 year was given and made the most of at the Christian 
 Association Training School in New York City. On her 
 return to China she went by way of Europe, speaking in 
 many countries and absorbing as well as giving out. An- 
 other term of service with the Y. W. C. A. and then came 
 this call for nation-wide service in the church. 
 
 The headquarters of the Council are at Shanghai, but 
 Miss Fan spends little time there. Her duties take her 
 afield. Last spring she spent a month in Manchuria. In 
 the summer she was on duty at the Women's Conference 
 at Kuling — China's Northfield. We read of her attending 
 "retreats" or conferences for the nurture of the spiritual 
 life. She does not confine herself to work with women 
 but all the time she is conscious of their needs and study- 
 ing their problems as she meets them in the church and 
 in the home. 
 
 7 
 
MISS TING, NATIONAL Y. W. C. A. SECRETARY 
 
 QHE began in a little Chinese courtyard — drab dirt 
 ^ ground, drab mud wall, drab sun-baked brick house 
 with its paper windows and dim interior. It was one of 
 many in a drab town on an utterly drab plain, Lintsing, 
 on the Great Plain of Shantung. There seemed every 
 reason to expect that her life would be as drab and 
 cramped as a girl's life in that town had always been. 
 
 But it was there that an American Board mission sta- 
 tion was established, staffed by a handful of white people 
 with their Chinese co-workers. In this station was a little 
 Christian school, and to this school went Ting Shu Ching. 
 Her feet were never bound, though she lived in a land 
 where she probably had never seen a woman walk natur- 
 ally. One wonders how she was ever allowed by her 
 people to take her seat in that school. It was one of the 
 exceptions to the drabness of events on the Great Plain. 
 
 After this there was Bridgman Academy in Peking 
 waiting to receive her, and here Ting Shu Ching walked 
 and worked with other girls in the beautiful American 
 Board compound. No drabness here, for China's capital 
 flares often in the red light of war, and her yellow tiles 
 always gleam in the peculiar brilliance of the Chinese sun- 
 shine. Next came Yenching College. It was then a small 
 institution, meagerly equipped, but largely endowed with 
 loyalty and hopes, and it was rich in the possession of a 
 great woman at its head — Miss Luella Miner; and Ting 
 Shu Ching learned large lessons here. 
 
 Lessons learned and a course ended, and where do we 
 find her? As teacher, as Y. W. C. A. worker, she gathered 
 experience in a world more new to her than Virginia was 
 
 8 
 
to Captain John Smith, for a new order of life was being 
 inaugurated and things did not "stay put." She matured 
 into a tall woman of charm and dignity, and an executive 
 of rare energy and tact. 
 
 When the city Y. W. C. A. in Peking wanted a head sec- 
 retary, it was she who filled the place, with a staff of white 
 and Chinese secretaries under her. Whenever there was 
 any committee to lead in international or other large 
 movements, Miss Ting was most often included. When 
 the great World's Student Christian Federation Confer- 
 ence, bringing delegates from thirty-three nations, met in 
 Peking, she was one of those who shared the burden of the 
 local arrangements and was one of the few Chinese who 
 appeared on the program. 
 
 Then when sudden death removed the American Gen- 
 eral Secretary of the National Y. W. C. A. and a Chinese 
 woman was eagerly sought to help in that great need, Miss 
 Ting was called away from urgent needs in Peking to the 
 still more urgent ones in Shanghai, in the national office. 
 
 These positions are not honorary. They involve the 
 most tedious, discouraging labor, and can be filled only by 
 able leaders who have a rare combination of devotion and 
 ability. Such a leader is possible today because, when she 
 was that little girl in drab Lintsing, there were those who 
 had faith in the womanhood of China, and some sent and 
 some went and some opened the way. 
 
 9 
 
MISS CHEN, PIONEER HOME MISSIONARY 
 
 "|\/fISS Chen Yu Ling was the first unmarried Chinese 
 x woman ever to travel about to lecture to mixed audi- 
 ences. No American can fully understand all that this 
 involved for an Oriental ten or a dozen years ago, especi- 
 ally for one who had grown up in an atmosphere of 
 Chinese culture and of traditional ideals. The oldest 
 daughter in a home where the father was a scholar and 
 life-long teacher, the mother the dainty, high-bred daugh- 
 ter of an official, it was inevitable that the ideal held before 
 Miss Chen should be of fast adherence to customs, even 
 those of foot-binding and seclusion of women. But with 
 Yu Ling, clear of brain and strong of will, the ideals of 
 Jesus prevailed. She shook herself free from the hamper- 
 ing customs, unbound her tiny, aristocratic feet, took her 
 place in the foremost rank in class and on finishing college 
 entered upon the difficult work of a speaker against the 
 homeland enemies — opium, intemperance and other habits 
 deadly to the progress of her people. Fearlessly she found 
 her way to far Manchuria, Shantung and Central China. 
 Everywhere listened to with respect, she won many for 
 the cause of temperance, for better homes, for the educa- 
 tion of girls. Because she showed such poise, such fear- 
 lessness in giving her messages, many a girl has had a 
 better chance. 
 
 What influence entered into the development of this un- 
 usual woman? Her education began back in the early 
 home at Mukden when she had a private Chinese tutor, 
 after the custom of official families. But her first school 
 days were spent at the Goodrich Girls' School in Tungh- 
 sien, to which her family moved in her girlhood, and she 
 
 10 
 
went on to Bridgman Academy and then through Yen- 
 ching College. At Tunghsien she first confessed Christ 
 and united with the church under the care of the Ameri- 
 can Board. School days finished, it was with her former 
 teacher at Tunghsien, Mrs. Chauncey Goodrich, that she 
 started to raise her voice and use her influence to combat 
 social evils. Three years were spent in this way, but Miss 
 Chen became convinced that to preach reform was not 
 enough. She thought that her people needed most of all 
 to know and to obey Jesus Christ and so she turned to 
 evangelistic work and, to better prepare herself for it, 
 spent a year at Nanking Theological Seminary. 
 
 Today Miss Chen is a home missionary serving in a 
 difficult field. When the Home Missionary Society of the 
 Chinese Church decided to enter Yunnan Province, she 
 helped to make the survey on the ground. She, with others, 
 started a school for girls and came back to the churches 
 full of enthusiasm to enlist their support and to lead back 
 a band of workers who volunteered to go for a five- 
 year period. One who knows the field, its difficulties and 
 hardships, declares that this is as truly pioneer work as 
 that done by Morrison and the early missionaries. 
 
 II 
 
MRS. CHUAN, CHRISTIAN MOTHER OF 
 EMINENT SONS 
 
 "PVORCAS, as she was called in school, was one of Bridg- 
 *^ man Academy's first pupils, and her husband was 
 one of the first pupils in the Tunghsien school that later 
 became North China College. While he was taking his 
 theological course, Mrs. Chuan taught one of the day 
 schools to help support the family. That was forty years 
 ago, so, if we could have peeped into her schoolroom, we 
 should have seen the children standing with their backs 
 to her, sing-songing their lessons out loud. We should 
 have thought the room small and poorly equipped, but in 
 her eyes it was lovely with its white walls, Bible pictures, 
 paper windows and its tables and backless benches. Her 
 pupils were mostly from non-Christian homes, but she 
 won their love and their respect, demanded from them 
 their best — and received it. Her own beloved teacher, 
 Miss Mary Porter, was her ideal. 
 
 As in her school, so she was in her home. No matter 
 where she was living, in the country as a preacher's wife, 
 in Tientsin or in Peking as the wife of the head school 
 teacher, Mrs. Chuan was always the gracious home-maker. 
 Her house was kept exquisitely clean and dainty. Her 
 large-heartedness and freedom from the petty prejudices 
 of her class is shown in her treatment of the bride of her 
 oldest son. The girl, although not uneducated, was of the 
 peasant class, while the Chuans were Manchus and proud 
 of their family history. But Mrs. Chuan opened her arms 
 to her daughter-in-law and was even more loving and 
 patient with her than with her own daughters. 
 
 A mother's life and work is shown by her children and 
 
 12 
 
Dorcas can be justly proud of hers. The eldest son died 
 during his final year at medical college, but the remaining 
 three sons and two daughters have justified their parents' 
 careful up-bringing and fulfilled their hopes. One son, Dr. 
 John Chuan, is a graduate of the Government Army and 
 Navy Medical College. He has traveled abroad and has 
 held positions of honor and responsibility under the Chi- 
 nese Government. Another son, James, after graduating 
 from the North China Union College, became a teacher 
 in Yale-in-China. He then came to America and was con- 
 nected with the Y. M. C. A. "Jimmy" Chuan will be re- 
 membered in college circles. He is now in China, engag- 
 ing in business. 
 
 Perhaps the best known of these brilliant sons is Peter 
 Chuan who, after graduating from college and seminary 
 in China, came to the United States and finished his train- 
 ing at Hartford Seminary. He was in France during the 
 war working under the Y. M. C. A. for the Chinese coolies. 
 He is now in charge of the literature department of the 
 National Christian Council of China. 
 
 So this Christian mother has multiplied her influence 
 manifold. She sees her grandchildren growing up fn 
 beautiful Christian homes. Through them she is to help 
 mould China's destinies for many years to come. 
 
 13 
 
MISS WEI, TRAINED NURSE 
 
 TNTO the foremost women's hospital of Shanghai, China, 
 some twenty-five years ago, was brought a little girl of 
 three. She was desperately ill and her parents doubtless 
 thought that she could not recover for they never re- 
 turned to claim her. But the wee patient found her way 
 back to life and the foreign doctors there adopted her as a 
 hospital child. She was known as Wei Ai Ling. 
 
 In due time she went to a mission school and then took 
 up work as a nurse in her hospital home. Either she had 
 a special aptitude for nursing, or her life within the walls 
 of a hospital among the sick aroused her love for that 
 work. At any rate, she became one of the most loved and 
 sought-after nurses. Her contact with foreigners had 
 given her proficiency in English so when Dr. Clara Nut- 
 ting came from America to take her interneship in this 
 hospital Miss Wei was appointed to be her interpreter. 
 The two became close friends. When Dr. Nutting went 
 north to Peking to study the Chinese language before 
 going to her work in the Fenchow Hospital, Miss Wei 
 accompanied her to take a regular nurse's training course 
 in a Peking hospital; for, although so skillful in her 
 chosen profession, she had had no opportunity to take the 
 regular course of study. 
 
 Graduating in three years instead of five because of her 
 long practical experience, she returned to Shanghai for a 
 year and then took up work in the new Fenchow Hospital. 
 Her salary is half that which she received in Shanghai, 
 but Miss Wei is one of those people, none too numerous 
 on either side of the Pacific, who work not for a salary 
 but for the joy of it. The patients all love her. 
 
 14 
 
A sick baby has a special delicacy to eat. One is apt to 
 discover that it came from Miss Wei. A young girl for 
 two years in the hospital with tuberculosis needs street 
 clothes for going to the summer sanitarium in the moun- 
 tains. Miss Wei has given her some of hers. Subscrip- 
 tions are sought for giving the patients a jolly Christmas. 
 Miss Wei is one of the generous givers. A gift comes to 
 the new hospital from a wealthy home not used to giving. 
 The lady's friendship for Miss Wei is found to have been 
 the inspiration. The Secretary of the Chinese Nurses' 
 Training Association says that there is no better Chinese 
 nurse in China and that she would as readily put her in 
 charge in a hospital as a foreign nurse. 
 
 15