Recently, Alvin Austin's book China's Millions: The China Inland Mission and Late Qing Society, 1832-1905 was jointly published by the Chinese Christian Literature Council of Taiwan, and the Research Center for Chinese Christianity, Chung Yuan Christian University.
According to Chinese Christian Studies, on the one hand, this book demonstrates the development of Protestant fundamentalist groups represented by the China Inland Mission from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries at a macro level. It also focuses on the lives of Hudson Taylor's missionary assistants at a micro level, showing their distinctive personalities and characteristics of the times. On the other hand, this book dives into the development of fundamentalist Christianity in China and even its transformation into Chinese Christianity during this period, showing many little-known details of the church on the Chinese mainland.
Overall, the book presents a history of the development of a certain kind of folk Christianity in China, a history that still has a story to tell today and has shaped, to some extent, the character and appearance of contemporary Chinese Christianity.
The author Alvin Austin was born in Calcutta, the son of a missionary couple of the China Inland Mission. He was an assistant professor at Brooke University in Ontario, Canada until his retirement. His works include Saving China: Canadian Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1888-1959.
- Translated by Kristina Ran
