Messengers to the Land of Sinim. Swedish mission in China during 100 years.

More than 700 Swedish missionaries worked in China 1847–1951. It was the largest number of missionaries from any country counting per capita. Large amounts of archival material in the form of letters, photos, books and documents in several languages are kept in Swedish archives. However, there is no comprehensive academic publication about Swedish mission in China. For years I have written articles and book chapters on this topic, and I will now write a monograph in English. The book will place Swedish China mission in international context, considering driving forces, conditions and characteristics. The China mission was a large part of Sino-Swedish relations for over 100 years, and I will see Swedish missionary work in relation to other contemporary Swedish presence in China. I will use Mary Louise Pratt’s theory of “contact zones” to analyse the mission work critically, considering the complex and unequal power relations it was part of. Missionary literature is often stereotyped but contains interesting eyewitness accounts of historical events from a local perspective. My manuscript builds on previously unresearched archival material where my sinological competence about Chinese culture, history and language will be crucial. The project will be of interest to Chinese historians, and one of my longer visits abroad will be in China. My book will contribute not only to the understanding of mission history, but to a deepened understanding of Sino-Swedish relations overall.