Talking About Research

In May, I was invited to speak about my research into my family history in China by the Evangelical East Asia Mission (EÖM) the organization that used to be called the Swedish Mission in China, which is the very mission my ancestors were part of.

Today, the mission organization consists of many people who have a personal connection to the missionaries who worked in China during the late 1800s and early 1900s. They might be children or grandchildren of missionaries, or people who worked alongside them. What they all share is a deep passion for the mission’s work, which still continues today, though in a different form.

That is why it was especially meaningful for me to attend their annual meeting and talk about how I have gone about tracing my family history, the discoveries I have made, and especially the support I have received from other mission researchers both in Sweden and in China.

My lecture was essentially a reflection on how my research has developed over time and led to a series of articles, all rooted in childhood memories of my grandmother Edna telling me bedtime stories about her upbringing in China. Those early stories, combined with materials I’ve found through archival research and online sources, have formed the foundation of the articles now available on this blog – a collection that continues to grow as I uncover new information and make further discoveries. It has been an organic process, with information emerging from different time periods of the missionaries’ work in China, and even from the time before they left Sweden. Most of my great-grandfathers didn’t come from wealthy backgrounds, but rather from hardworking blacksmith or farming families (though Dagny’s Norwegian family was somewhat better off).

Looking at their lives now, I’d say that the mission was not only a calling of faith, but also a way to rise above their circumstances. It offered a chance to make a social leap and build a life that might not otherwise have been possible – even if that was probably not something they consciously considered as they set off to work in China, a country that at the time was marked by real hardship.

Christianity in China today
One interesting part of the annual meeting was Associate Professor in Sinology, Fredrik Fällman’s talk about what it’s like to be a Christian in China today. It was interesting to find out that while churches are technically allowed to exist, no one who isn’t a registered member is allowed to enter the church building. Outside the churches, you often see signs with various government directives encouraging people to read Xi Jinping’s decrees. Only inside the church fences is it permitted to display Bible verses or anything faith-related.

Fredrik Fällman has written a lot about how religion is being adapted to fit today’s China. For anyone interested (note: the article is in Swedish), here is one of his articles: https://signum.se/artikelarkiv/i-takt-med-tidseran-fortsatt-anpassning-av-religion-i-kina/

Stories about my relatives
Another highlight for me was getting to meet members of the mission who actually knew my relatives in China when they were children. Especially lovely was meeting Gunvor and Anne-Marie, who were both born in China and who shared memories about Nils and Dagny, respectively.

Gunvor, born in 1933, remembered sitting on my great-grandfather Nils’s lap as a child and described him as a very kind and cheerful man. Her impression of Olga, on the other hand, was that she came across as a bit more stern. I found that really interesting to hear!

Anne-Marie, born in 1939, shared a story about Dagny during a time of famine in China:
Somehow, Dagny had gotten hold of a sack of flour. From this sack, she handed out flour to the local Chinese so they could bake bread – probably mixed with tree bark, which was common during times of scarcity. The famine was severe, and Dagny worried that the flour wouldn’t last long. But she made a decision not to look inside the sack to see how much was left. She just kept scooping out flour, day after day. According to Anne-Marie, the flour lasted for as long as it was needed – a kind of miracle, and a story that has since been passed down.

I haven’t personally found this story in any of Dagny’s writings, so I can’t verify it, but it was still a moving moment for me to meet someone who knew Dagny and could share a personal memory about her.

Looking through Sinim’s Land, I found this text by Robert about the famine in China that tells about another side of this catastrophe (1928-1930), that took an estimated 6 million lives:

“Our five mission compounds, which had been seized by soldiers, were all quite badly damaged. The worst off was the home for the elderly members of the congregation. After that came the boys’ school, then the girls’ school, and finally the women’s quarters. But the biggest loss was suffered by the Industrial School. On top of that, several members of our congregation were right on the brink of starvation. On top of that, several members of our congregation were right on the brink of starvation. Yes, the famine in our district is so severe that people in many places are starting to take their own lives rather than starve to death. While we were there, one of our church member’s brothers hanged himself, and the son of another member threw himself into a well and drowned — both for the same reason.
Yuncheng, November 7, 1928
Yours in the Lord,
Robert Bergling“

Read more about the Chinese famine on Wikipedia.

I’m truly grateful to EÖM for inviting me to speak at their annual meeting. The experience also gave me new inspiration for upcoming articles, that I hope to share on this blog in the future.