Gordon L. Heath
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​My blog posts revolve around my interests and vocation as a historian: the intersection of history and contemporary church life, the intersection of history and contemporary politics, serendipitous discoveries in archives or on research trips, publications and research projects, upcoming conferences, and speaking engagements.

I also blog for two other organizations, the Canadian Baptist Historical Society and the Centre for Post-Christendom Studies.

The views expressed in these blogs represent the views of the authors, and not necessarily those of any organizations with which they are associated.

Serendipity: Hockey and Missionaries in China

1/18/2022

2 Comments

 
Picture
Image from https://botanwang.com/articles/202109/〖微历史〗是谓“民主革命的伟大胜利”.html
One of my Chinese friends recently sent me this image. He knew I loved hockey and thought - quite correctly - that I would enjoy the image. The caption reads "In 1929, the hockey team of Yenching University had a friendly competition with that of an American university." (The name of the other university is not identified.)

Yenching University was founded by American Presbyterian missionary Stuart Leighton, one of the most important and influential missionaries in China during the first half of the twentieth century. And it looks like the western missionary effort included the introduction of the great game of hockey.

Like many Canadians, I look forward to Canada displaying its hockey prowess in the upcoming Winter Olympics. Sadly, this year we will not be able to send NHL players. But we still hope that our male and female hockey teams bring back Gold! 
We have read much about the readiness of the Chinese Olympic team, but, based on this picture, the Chinese have been preparing for almost 100 years.
2 Comments
Xiaochun Wang
1/19/2022 06:31:57 am

Wonderful! I guess that the American university was probably Harvard University because Yenching University had a nickname of the Harvard University in China. The graduates from Yenching University were able to enter Harvard University directly. At present Harvard University still has a Harvard-Yenching Publishing House.
Also, the playground was on the famous No Name Lake on the campus. When I studied Canadian history for MA in 1995-1998, I used to walk around the lake, completely unaware of the history of the hockey competition nearly 70 years ago.

Reply
Gordon Heath
1/19/2022 07:16:05 am

Thanks Will for the further details!

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