Scotland-China Association

Dugald Christie, a Scottish Christian in Changing China
by Ian Wotherspoon

Christian missionaries from around the world played an important, if controversial, part in the development of China in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Ian Wotherspoon remembers one Scottish missionary, Dugald Christie, whose cultural awareness and humanitarian involvement were extraordinary.

It’s a long way from Glen Coe to Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city; it’s even further from Edinburgh to Shenyang (Mukden), the capital of what is now Liaoning province in China.  Born below the heights of Buchaille Etive Mor, Dugald Christie came to Edinburgh to study medicine and in 1883, as a medical missionary of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, went to Shenyang where he spent most of his life in the remote, often hostile, environment of northeastern China.  The cold climate there, he said, reminded him so much of home.[1]

Forty Years of the Scotland–China Association, I 
by John Chinnery

As an introduction to this subject, I could not do better than to augment the first page of a short article I wrote on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the foundation of our organisation, printed in the November 1996 issue of Sine.

The forerunner of the SCA was the Britain–China Friendship Association, which was set up in London in 1949.  Its inaugural meeting was addressed by, among others, the celebrated American journalist Agnes Smedley (pictured, with PLA pre-1949) who had been resident in China since the 1930s and was acquainted with many of the leaders of the new government.

Forty Years of the Scotland–China Association, II : Changes Over the Years
by Elsie Collier

The path the SCA has taken in its first 40 years hs been influenced by three things: China’s culture and her social, political and economic development; individual members of the Association, their specific interests in China, and, in some cases, their areas of expertise and their jobs; and the fact that we are a voluntary organisation.

In the 1970s members, some of whom were lecturers at the universities in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, spoke at schools conferences jointly organised with other bodies.  Here are some:
1970        with Edinburgh University Department of Education and Extra-Mural Studies, a “One Day Study Conference” with John Chinnery
1971        with Glasgow Corporation Education Department, a Senior Schools Conference, “China Today”, with Andrew Watson and Jack Gray
1972        with the Council for Education in World Citizenship, organised by Muriel Murdoch, an “Ayrshire Schools Conference” with John Chinnery and John Collier
1972        with the University of Dundee, a day conference, “China Observed”, with Alex Reid and John Fleming

Massacre at Nanjing: A Forgotten Tragedy
by Euan Petrie

"Over recent months, on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second world war, we have been revisiting many of the triumphs of the tragedies of the conflict.  Often with the survivors present, perhaps for the last time.  Among the avalanch of media articles and events, little or nothing was heard of the horrific events that took place in Nanking in 1937 that might have served as a warning of the many horrors to follow.  This article is dedicated to the memory of the victims, known and unknown; to the few brave foreigners who tried with some success but many failures, to save the citizens of Nanking; and to Iris Chang, who kept the memories alive."