Introduction

In analyzing the interactions between the “West” and “East” in modern history, many scholars have highlighted the function of various intellectuals in supporting the power of the former over the latter. Western imperialism has been advanced through a variety of means, ranging from plainly military methods to subtler, cultural forces. While colonial administrators or military leaders participated in the direct, forceful assertion of power over the East, individuals such as novelists and scientists contributed by generating knowledge about and creating images of the non-Western world that proved useful in justifying and supporting Western power. This phenomenon has been termed “Orientalism,” after the academic tradition that emerged in the West for dealing with knowledge about the East. Missionaries occupied a unique place in this interaction between East and West; as representatives of Western civilization whose goals were chiefly cultural rather than political or economic, they both worked with existing images of the “Orient” and contributed to the development of these images. Further complicating the picture, many missionaries extended their activities beyond the propagation of Western religion and the transformation of native culture – adding, for instance, the role of scientist to their job descriptions.

In this paper, I seek to add to our understanding of the engagement of the East and West by examining the work and world of David Crockett Graham, a Baptist missionary who operated in West China during the first half of the twentieth century. Like many of his peers, Graham encountered the Orient in a richly multi-faceted way, adding to his work as an evangelist the roles of author, anthropologist, naturalist, and administrator. Following a more detailed exposition of Orientalism and its scholarly analyses, I will situate D.C. Graham’s work in the context of the West China Border Research Society, a missionary-based, scientific institution in which Graham was deeply involved as both a scientist and leader/administrator. This study will show that the Society exemplified Orientialism in action, as evidenced by its stated mission and the work that Graham and others published under its auspices. From here I will consider the ways in which D.C. Graham diverged from the stereotype of the Orientalist scholar by looking at his academic writings and his interactions with the people of West China. In highlighting these divergences, I will show how cultural forces within the contemporary mission community shaped Graham’s more humane and egalitarian attitudes and behaviors. By examining David Crockett Graham’s encounter with West China, we may see how a single individual exists in tension with a variety of cultural influences and cannot fully exemplify any one “type” of person or function of ideology, thereby complicating our understanding of the role Western intellectuals played in the process of imperialism.