When Protestant and Catholic missionaries returned to China during the 19th century, they did not arrive in a spiritual vacuum. For many of them, one discovery was very important. The Nestorian Stele in Xi’an was a nearly three-meter-high stone monument erected in 781 during the Tang dynasty. Today the stele is displayed at the Beilin... Continue Reading →
The Chinese Recorder - I had not heard of this publication until I opened the book gift from dear Karin Stålhammar. The package contained quite a few issues of this missionary journal featuring missionary news, articles, obituaries and advertisements - mainly from the years 1920-1923. The journal is in English and was aimed at an... Continue Reading →
Looking through the box of books and documents that fellow researcher Karin Stålhammar Hansson sent me in December, I came across a carefully wrapped Bible in Chinese. On the title page is the name “Mina Stålhammar,” Karin’s grandmother. The cover is somewhat worn, but all the pages are intact, and a bookmark, depicting the mission... Continue Reading →
On New Year’s Eve 1927, 98 years ago, Robert and Dagny’s eldest, and only surviving, daughter, Dagny-Edla, finally set foot in China again, this time as a missionary in her own right. She had been sent home from China to study in Sweden in 1907 and had longed to return ever since. During her years... Continue Reading →
Ever since I started researching missionary history, I have encountered, and been pleasantly surprised by, meeting and connecting with generous people of all kinds. People who have shared their knowledge and time with me, been interested in my findings, and rooted for me - motivating me to keep researching and writing the history of my... Continue Reading →
Every September, one of Sweden’s biggest cultural events takes place – the Gothenburg Book Fair. There’s always a certain energy in the air when the fair opens its doors - a mix of excitement, ink, and ideas. For me, it’s both work and inspiration. But this year felt especially meaningful, because I knew I would... Continue Reading →
Whenever I travel somewhere, I make it a habit to see if there is some place along the way, or close to my destination, that is connected to family history. This summer, we headed towards southern Sweden and I as I know my great grandfather Nils is from the Småland region, I thought it would... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Life truly takes unexpected turns, and you should never assume you know what lies just around the corner. Since I last wrote and wondered what it would be like to follow in my relatives' footsteps in China, I’ve actually had the chance to do so, though on a much smaller scale. Through my job, I... Continue Reading →
Responding to my latest article here on the blog, Mr. Liu Hong wrote me the other day. He told me he had just recently visited Hancheng, the town where Robert fought so hard to rent a house for the mission. Hong had never been before, but now he had at last been able to make... Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Mr. Liu Hong, a passionate researcher of Swedish missionaries in China. He shared with me a passage about my great-grandfather Robert’s challenges in establishing a mission station in Hancheng, Shaanxi. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was incredibly difficult for foreigners to... Continue Reading →
It's the last day of 2024 and it just struck me that I started this blog 10 years ago - in 2014. Back then I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with this space. That is also quite obvious when I look back at the posts I wrote over... Continue Reading →
This Christmas, I received two handwritten Christmas cards in the mail. The number of Christmas cards has steadily decreased in recent years. I used to write a lot of cards myself, but like so many others, I don’t write them anymore. I was very, very happy to receive the two cards, though. There is something... Continue Reading →
My small library with books related to missionary history is slowly growing. The books are particularly concentrating on the Swedish Mission to China, its missionaries and publications. I love physical books, and regularly search online antiquarian bookstores to see if they have any of my relatives' books, or works by their friends and missionary colleagues.... Continue Reading →
As a parent, it has often been tough to leave my children behind for work trips to other countries. Since I had a job that required frequent travel, there were plenty of times I missed my kids when they were little. What brought me comfort was knowing that they had a dad at home taking... Continue Reading →
My great grandfather Nils Styrelius passed away on this day, the 16th of October, 82 years ago. By then he was a well-travelled man, who had lived an adventurous life. I have written about his passing before, and a bit about his time as an emigrant to America. He emigrated from Sweden to Chicago in... Continue Reading →
Spending a couple of weeks in Scotland for the first time, I have tried to walk in my great grandmother's shoes. At the turn of the last century, Olga lived in Glasgow for around 5 years. Her greatest desire was to become a missionary in China, and to achieve that, she understood that she would... Continue Reading →
Time has come for the Mystery Man to be properly named and put in context. Thanks to Haifeng, a Chinese blogreader and avid researcher, the mystery man from my grandmother's old glass cabinet has now been identified! If you have followed my blog, you know that I have written about this man and tried to... Continue Reading →
Those of you who follow this blog know that my relatives spent much of their lives in China, a country so different from Sweden that life there must have seemed like something out of a novel, or a parallel universe. To live there, in a foreign culture and a foreign language, they had to adapt... Continue Reading →
When I was little, the stories I loved to hear the most, were the stories my grandmother Edna told me about her childhood in China. She used to tell about her dangerous escape from the Swedish school on the mountain of Kikungshan, when foreigners were persecuted in China, and how she and her best friend... Continue Reading →
