研究期間：10108~10207;The Chinese Recorder is the most important English-language church magazine in modern China. Its period covers 72 years, from late Qing to the mid-Republican. It provides very rich sources about modern China. In addition to the extensive reports and discussions on Chinese society, culture and politics, this magazine also serves as a platform for missionaries to share their ideas and opinions. This magazine has been a major source for Western scholars to conduct research on China. However, very few scholars have examined the contents of the magazine as well as studied the perspectives of missionary reports of China. Coming from an outsider’s perspective, these missionaries should be more objective when it comes to observing China. However they were sometimes influenced by their own standpoints and values. Therefore a thorough examination of the contents of the magazine will not only help us understand China better, but also put us in a better position to evaluate missionary reports and their viewpoints. The last decade of the Qing Dynasty is both the most turbulent and the fastest growing reform period. Changing China becomes a challenge to these Christian missionaries and a major topic of the Chinese Recorder. It has become an intriguing question for them to perceive the changing times, to interpret the changes, to find the needs of China, and to pass the Gospel to the Chinese. This project will focus on three major topics of the magazine – social upheavals, the messages and activities of the revolutionists, and Christian messages appropriate to the Chinese. It is hoped that the result of this project will present a clear picture of the last decade of the Qing Dynasty and of missionary understanding of China through their messages and attitudes to the era.
