ABSTRACT
One possibility for historians interested in the “other” is to try, via the story expressed in the sources, to catch a glimpse of the original encounter between these groups of people, in other words of their “in-betweenness.” Telling the encounter from the perspective of the “other” also means paying attention to the “other,” especially the “other” within the missionaries and converts, their internal motivations and desires, their spirituality, hopes, and dreams. The encounters in the processes of localization and accommodation were not always harmonious. The degrees of accommodation are also very diverse and can be visualized as a gradient scale. The chapter examines the movements of missionaries in different directions: in the case of China, the movements can be described as ascending, horizontal, and descending across the system of urban hierarchy and macro-regions. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
