ABSTRACT
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which opened its China Mission in 1849, was one of the most active and successful Protestant denominations in China. This chapter discusses the Southern Methodists' activities and experiences in their missions in the Shanghai-Suzhou area in the second half of the nineteenth century. It focuses on the relationship between the Board of the Church and its China Mission in planning and developing the Methodist expansion in China. The Board accepted Foreign Missions recommendation and in 1847 appointed Charles Taylor and Benjamin Jenkins, both from the South Carolina Conference, as missionaries to China. In September 1848, Taylor arrived in Shanghai. The medical work of the Church in China had been organized since 1878 by the Home Board. In May 1900 the Home Board of the Church approved the China Mission's proposal to establish a higher educational system headed by a university at Suzhou.
