“Broken Bits of China:” Orphan Imagery in the Missionary Imagination

• In Event: China through a Missionary Lens: Reconstructing Early Twentieth-Century Chinese History through Photographic Sources

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which photographs of Chinese children, mostly orphans, came to define the American missionary movement in the early twentieth century. This paper draws upon recently-digitized collections of missionary photographs as well as images from missionary publications in order to discuss the importance of orphan imagery to mission fundraising, missionary approaches to children, and the establishment of sentimental bonds between missionaries and their supporters “back home.” Images of smiling children regularly appeared in missionary periodicals, often in conjunction with appeals for funds. Orphan imagery, for example, featured prominently in campaigns to “ransom a pagan baby,” that urged American Catholic mission supporters to contribute five dollars to the care of a Chinese orphan, receiving the right to name the child in return. The conversion of children, moreover, occupied a central place in missionary strategies to propagate the faith among the Chinese. “Before and after” photographs of orphans offered a visualization of this conversion fantasy at the heart of the missionary movement and marked the “progress” made by missionaries at both civilizing and evangelizing China. Finally, the reception of orphan imagery exemplified the processes of cultural understanding identified by previous work on missionary photography as “picturing pity” and “spectatorial sympathy.” Children’s images represented one of the most effective forms of creating sentimental ties between faraway lands and viewers in America.

Author

• Margaret Kuo, California State University, Long Beach