Christiana Tsai 1

I had promised some time ago to write more about Christiana Tsai. For a variety of reasons I have little time to blog, so I am going to type out a few excerpts from her book and comment on them later of maybe not. Here is one story of a Chinese woman's travels in China, 1937-1945.

The Chinese Christian women of this era were in many cases rejected by their families and lived in a cultural manner that was neither Chinese nor western. In this harsh "no-man's land," they were able to escape some of the constraints of gender.

Miss Garden's wanderings were similar but even more prolonged. She went from town to town throughout inland China, carrying her little satchel and a few dollars. Everywhere she went she found little Christian chapels and mission stations where she was entertained, and directed by devoted Christians who were mostly members of the China Inland Mission.

She slept on straw on the floor, washed at the well, ate the simple food they provided, preached at the evangelistic services, taught Bible classes, and joined new groups of refugees who went west as the news came that the Japanese were approaching. They traveled by houseboat, wheelbarrow, or donkey, or on foot through the picturesque hill country of central and southwest China.

The Christians of the interior welcomed her and asked her to preach to the crowds that passed along, so the opportunities for witnessing were unlimited. For eight years, from the beginning of the war in 1937, she wandered through ten provinces, preaching, teaching and witnessing with no other means of support than what she received till the war was over in 1945.

Queen of the Dark Chamber, page 153-154.