British Empire, Chinese Nationalism, and Protestant Mission Schools: Navigating Loyalties in the Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College (1925-1930)

Abstract

Focusing on the dynamics of appointing a “suitable” Chinese principal, this article examines the multiple interests and loyalties that were implicated and manifested in a British mission school of prestige situated in the treaty port of Tianjin during a series of anti-imperialist and anti-Christian campaigns in the 1920s. The case study of the Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College (TACC) illustrates the intricate and ambiguous nature of the interplay between the British settlers, Christian missions, the Chinese government, and the local community, set against the backdrop of heightened nationalism in Republican China. The article argues that the issue of loyalties in a mission school setting – as exemplified by the TACC – can be far more complex and should not be simplistically reduced to a binary opposition between loyalty to the British and loyalty to the Chinese, even at a time of intensifying Sino-British tensions. Local social networks and pragmatic interests in politics, religion, international relations, trade, and educational administration were inextricably intertwined, exerting a profound impact on the dynamics of Sino- British relations in Tianjin.