Vic in China

In October 2012, President Emeritus Paul Gooch visited Chengdu, Sichuan where he had the opportunity to visit an exhibition of historic photographs taken by Canadian missionaries that reflected their lives and affections for China from the late-Qing dynasty to the 1940s. Many of these missionaries were graduates of Victoria University. Inspired by the work of the Canadian Old Photo Project Team in Chengdu led by Ms. Xiang Suzhen, Mr. Zhang Biao and Mr.Yingming Zhang, Professor Gooch suggested that a photo exhibition be organized at Victoria University.

 Vic in China is an online exhibit of scanned photographs sent to Victoria University Library by the families of Victoria College missionaries to West China. Victoria University Library gathered and organized the photographs adding supplementary text from period publications and missionaries’ memoirs. The titles assigned to the photographs have been provided by the families in most cases. Where the photographs were unnamed, we have provided generic titles. A number of the photographs from the family albums appear in publications, notably the 2013 exhibition Chengdu, My Home, but many were also used in monographs published by the missionaries themselves. Some photos are unique to this exhibition. The curators of the exhibit welcome any comments and/or corrections of identification. 

The spelling of Chinese names and places vary in this exhibit due to the evolution of English transliteration. Chengdu, for example is mostly spelled Chengtu because this is the spelling used to describe photographs or in the articles written by those who served as missionaries.

This exhibit is a work in progress. We will continue to add to the web site as information is discovered through our research, as well as through additional contributions of descendants of Vic missionaries.

We would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and their families for their assistance in providing photographs and information for the 'Vic in China' exhibit: Kevin Best, John Durfey, Stephen Endicott, Ken Johns, Daniel Laxer, Francie Service, Marion Walker, David Walmsley, Cory Willmott,Jean Zamin, the Jolliffe family, and the Irwin family. We would also like to express our thanks for the support given to us by those involved with the Canadian Old Photo Project Team in Chengdu and particularly Mr. Yingming Zhang who helped greatly by connecting us with Vic’s missionary families.

The United Church Archives is the principal repository for archival papers and photographs documenting the work of Methodist (and United Church) missionaries to China. A small number of the photographs in this exhibit come from the United Church Archives. We would like to acknowledge the assistance of the United Church Archives staff with this project: Elizabeth Mathew, Kira Baker, Lea De La Paz, and  Nichole Vonk.

Vic in China was organized by Alison Girling, Lisa Sherlock and Karen Wishart. The exhibition curator, researcher and writer was Alison Girling. The exhibition website was designed by Abraham Lam, Agatha Barc, and Grigory Matoussov. 

The "Vic in China' exhibition was launched in October 2015 in conjunction with the Christianity and China in the 21st Century conference, Emmanuel College, October 22 - 24, 2015.

"Vic in China" welcomes all comments. Please contact us. The site will continue to be developed, and we would be pleased to receive additional photographs and information from missionary families.