China Journal: An American Missionary Family During the Boxer Rebellion

Although the dragon gates have opened wide in the past decade, in 1900 China tried to shut out all things foreign amidst the hysteria of the Boxer Rebellion. This intimate account of rural missionary life in the 10 years that preceded the Rebellion, culled from Price's letters home, touchingly counterpoints her attempts to preserve American-style domesticity with observations of an altogether foreign land that could neither understand her nor be understood by her. The Price family lived in Shanxi province from November 1889 until they were murdered in August 1900. They tried to impose a wholly alien religion on an ancient culture; they were destined to fail. The volume could have benefited from more pruning, but its record of missionary and Chinese life, and its tale of ordinary mortals traveling steadily toward their doom, makes compelling reading. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.