ARTHUR H. SMITH
(Arthur Henderson Smith)
This quotation helps to explain the 19th and 20th century hostility of many Chinese to Missionaries and Christians. The missionary involvement in and interference with the Chinese justice system, together with their one-sided advocacy for Christians regardless of rectitude developed a resentment by the majority of Chinese who had a tradition of religious tolerance—see {34001}.
Arthur Henderson Smith (Chinese name: 明恩溥; pinyin: Ming Enpu) was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions noted for spending 54 years as a missionary in China and writing books which presented China to foreign readers. These books include Chinese Characteristics, Village Life in China and The Uplift of China. In the 1920s, Chinese Characteristics was still the most widely read book on China among foreign residents there. However, it has been noted by later scholars, including Timothy Cheek in his book The Intellectual in Modern Chinese History, that Smith’s work exemplified the ‘thinly disguised racism’ contained in the writings of many Protestant missionaries in China at that time.
