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Amy Oxley Wilkinson was a well-known missionary in both China and the West in the early twentieth century. Initially setting up a mission station in a remote area of Fujian Province, she became aware of the way blind children were neglected, hidden, or abandoned in China at the time. After finding a blind boy left to die in a ditch, she established an innovative Blind Boys School in Fuzhou. Meanwhile her husband, Dr. George Wilkinson, set up the city's first hospital and introduced a program to address the pervasive curse of opium addiction. Amy's holistic and vocational approach to disability education brought her national and later international recognition. In 1920, the president of the new Chinese republic awarded her the Order of the Golden Grain, the highest honor a foreigner could receive. Two years later, Amy and the school's brass band toured England and performed before Queen Mary. Amy's story highlights the significance of contributions by women missionaries to the development of early modern China, and is a challenge to anyone committed to making their life count for others. Her Blind School remains a major institution in Fuzhou to this day.
About the author
Robert Banks has taught theology and history at various universities and seminaries and has written several award-winning books. Linda Banks has worked as a teacher, university chaplain, and pastor, and presently focuses on research and writing. They have visited the People's Republic of China several times, and together have written three earlier books on mission in China, View from the Faraway Pagoda (2013), Through the Valley of the Shadow (Pickwick, 2019), and They Shall See His Face (Pickwick, 2021).
