| Abstract | This study of the Door of Hope Mission traces its history from its founding in Shanghai, China, in 1900 through its closing there in 1951 and subsequent recreation in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1955-76. Established as a rescue mission for Chinese prostitutes, the Door of Hope quickly evolved into a multi-purpose shelter for women, girls and at times boys who were abandoned, ran away from abuse, were brought by relatives unable or unwilling to care for them, and whom the Mission deemed in need of rescue. The Mission existed in an enclave within an enclave--the semi-colonial world of Shanghai's International Settlement. Its relations with this peculiar Western state within an Asian setting are an integral part of the study, which covers decades in which the state was gradually reclaimed by the Chinese. After exploring the parallel traditions from East and West regarding philanthropy and social welfare, the dissertation situates the Door of Hope within the many worlds of Shanghai that it served: the Western women who controlled, worked at and supported it; the Western men who contributed their expertise; the Chinese male elites who aided and used it for their own purposes; the Chinese women who added their support and labor as 'helpers;' and, lastly, the young women and their families who had their own visions of the uses of this transplanted Anglo-American institution. These alliances shifted over time, and the dissertation traces the major changes that occurred in city and Mission over the course of seven decades. Begun as a broad Sino-Western collaboration, the Mission evolved into an institution dominated by Western evangelicals and Chinese Christians. Yet the setting and the demands of their young charges forced the missionaries to continually renegotiate their views about the Mission's reconstruction of young womanhood. Viewing the Mission as a site for the complex encounter between East and West, the dissertation explores how all those whose paths crossed at the Door of Hope were themselves altered by the experience. |
