ABSTRACT
Zhang Yunfa's sister also was a woman of some initiative. She took the lead in persuading the Wuhua women to memorize hymns preparatory to organizing their own "spiritual choir," according to Lechler.3 She was perhaps drawing on the practice of small groups of women, especially elderly women, chanting scriptures before the altars on the birthdays of the gods and goddesses. She was also, in a sense, building on the Hakka's renowned love of singing. One form of recreation for Hakka women was to gather to listen to one of their members sing ballads in the vernacular, sometimes using ballad books. There was also a tradition of singing love songs and funeral laments, especially by women.4 The example of Mrs. Lechler, who sometimes accompanied her husband on itinerations into the interior, inspired and encouraged women. Concerning trips with Li Zhenggao to Qingyuan in March 1866 and June 1869, Lechler reported that the women eagerly gathered around Mrs. Lechler. They were, in fact, so emboldened that they themselves requested Lechler to continue his exposition after his formal sermon. Afterwards, Mrs. Lechler joined the women in their quarters for a meal; here in accord with custom they ate separately from the men. The women were impressed and pleased when Mrs. Lechler went unaccompanied to villages and visited with them.s
One consequence of Mrs. Lechler's itinerations was that the Basel home board changed its policy regarding the feasibility of European women living in the interior and began routinely to permit the marriage of missionaries; hitherto the Board had required five years of mission service before marriage and it had discharged one missionary who became engaged to a woman of the London Missionary Society. One of the first women to be sent out under the new policy was Emilie Rowohl, who was an experienced teacher in the Basel Mission's school and was slated to become the wife of Heinrich Bender and supervisor of schools at the Zhangcun station. By the end of the century the mission society was permitting the appointment of single women. Even earlier, the missionaries had begun to employ an increasing number of Chinese women as assistants. Several such Chinese evangelists and teachers were mentioned in the reports of the 1860s and 1870s, some of them being widows offormer Gehilfen. For widows, the position of Bible woman offered not only a vocation but a degree of financial independence, thereby lessening the perception of her as a burden on her husband's family.
