DR. CAROL LEE HAMRIN is research professor at George Mason University and a senior associate with Global China Center and author of God and Caesar in China and Decision-Making in Deng's China.

STACEY BIELER is author of “Patriots” or “Traitors”? A History of American-Educated Chinese Students.

Salt and Light presents the life stories of outstanding Chinese Christians who, as early modernizers, promoted China's nation building and moral progress in the early twentieth century. Lively anecdotes and photographs highlight the strong character of ten pioneers in the modern professions of education, medicine, journalism, and diplomacy.

(Click on the photos for more details)

These professionals were motivated by faith to introduce practical social reforms and build up China's civil society. They modeled and promoted virtues essential to social progress during the “golden age” of Chinese Protestantism. Their stories touch on themes important in today's global era: patterns of cooperation between foreign and Chinese partners, the contributions to China of Western-educated professionals, Christianity's role in furthering East-West understanding and exchanges, and the transnational nature of modern Chinese Christianity:

• Rong Hong - Visionary for a New China
• Tang Guo'an - Pioneering China's Rights Recovery Movement
• Shi Meiyu - An "Army of Women" in Medicine
• Fan Zimei - Between Tradition and Modernity
• Ding Shujing - The YWCA Pathway for China's "New Women"
• Mei Yiqi - University President in Wartime
• Lin Qiaozi - The Steady Pulse of a Quiet Faith
• Wei Zhuomin - Bridging National Culture and World Values
• Wu Yifang - Abundant Life in Training Women for Service
• Yan Yangchu - Reformer with a Heart for the Village

The editors and authors articulate the importance of recovering China's Christian heritage as part of world Christianity.

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“I highly recommend this collection of succinct, deftly drawn portraits of Chinese Christians, whose lives made a difference. e editors and authors are sympathetic to their subjects but also realistic in their evaluation. Historians of modern China, and many in Chinese Christian communities worldwide, will enjoy and profit from learning about these ten laypersons who contributed much to the Kingdom of God and to the society in which they lived.”

“Recovering the lost narratives of ten remarkable Chinese Christians tells us that Christianity in China is profoundly and thoroughly Chinese. ese impressive stories so aptly show that the modern-era migration of Christian faith, in contrast to earlier Chinese appropriations since the seventh century, sank roots deep into the cultural soil of China. How this occurred, in each case, is an achievement to be celebrated. is is a wonderful project.”

“Salt and Light is a scrupulous and moving work that presents the human face of China's emergence in the world, showing how China's great human assets bear the imprint of deep encounter with the West. It is impossible to overestimate the long-term value of that encounter, and there is no question that such encounter will impact China's international outlook. is book shows why China will take its bearings from the historical memories of complex relations with the West as it emerges as a major world power in the near future.”