Gansu - 1880 Tibetan Work

1880s Tibetan work

George Parker and the Mission Uproar

George and Shao Mianzi Parker.

In 1876, George Parker of the China Inland Mission had become the first Evangelical to live in Gansu Province. Although he had a full schedule reaching out to the unreached Han Chinese and Hui Muslims in the city of Lanzhou, he nevertheless found time to conduct extensive journeys throughout the Amdo area.

Parker had come to China as a single man, and he fell in love with a teenage Chinese girl named Shao Mianzi, whom he had met while she was studying at the CIM school in Yangzhou. Their relationship erupted into a furore in the mission community.

Hudson Taylor was in London when a batch of letters arrived from distraught missionaries, urging him to interject himself into the situation and stop the relationship. The missionaries were afraid that if Parker married the girl, the ramifications would be widespread, and Chinese parents would be reluctant to send their daughters to Christian schools.

Parker and Shao were determined to marry, however, and they rebuffed all attempts to stop them, including strenuous efforts by Taylor to help Parker "see the error of his ways." Missionaries were divided down the middle: some thought Parker should be allowed to make his own decisions, while others threatened to resign from the ministry if the marriage went ahead.

Many Chinese believers, meanwhile, struggled to understand what the fuss was about, and suggested the controversy smacked of racism, as the rules pertaining to a Westerner marrying a local appeared starkly different from those applied to marriage between two Westerners. In the end,

"It was Mianzi's father who volunteered an acceptable solution: compensation for his expenditure on her since her birth. He willingly signed a document agreeing to the marriage, and absolving George from all claims. Eight months later, in February 1881, 'Miss Minnie Shao' married Parker, thus becoming the first Asian member of the China Inland Mission. Later that year the Parkers had their first child, Johnnie, and soon there was hardly a lane or courtyard where they were not known and welcomed."[i]

In 1883 the Parkers set off on a 2,000 mile (3,240 km) exploratory journey through southern Gansu, riding through regions under the control of the Choni Tibetan prince. Minnie proved a great asset to the ministry, while her dark complexion helped her easily fit in with the local Tibetan women. A report of their trip said:

"Parker was able to take his wife and Miss Hannah Jones to the Tibetan town of Choni, and leave them there while he went on to Labrang. Till we come to Lhasa there is no Tibetan town of equal importance to Labrang, and it has never before been visited by a missionary.

At Choni, Mrs. Parker and Miss Jones mixed freely with the Tibetan women, and also visited the wives of some of the principal residents who were in positions of authority. These and many other opportunities were had on the journey to and from Choni for reaching Tibetans and Chinese women, to whom previously the words of life had never been spoken."[ii]

Parker served in China for 55 years.

The Parkers remained deeply committed to the Lord and to one another for the rest of their lives. George finally passed away in China in 1931, shortly after he and Minnie had celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Minnie Shao Mianzi and her son Johnnie returned to England, where he became the Chief Electrical Engineer of the Greater London Underground.

Only eternity will reveal the impact that the early ministry of the Parkers and other missionaries had for the kingdom of God among the Amdo Tibetans. In the same town of Choni that they frequently visited, a strong church emerged a few decades later, which grew to become one of the largest Evangelical fellowships of Tibetan believers anywhere in the world to the present time.