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John Young Allen Edit Profile

also known as Lin Lezhi

educator Missionary

Young John Allen was an American Methodist missionary and educator. He took part in the American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission.

Background

Young John Allen was born on January 3, 1836 in Burke County, Georgia, United States. He was early left an orphan--his father, Young John, died shortly before the son's birth, and his mother, Mary Wooten, soon thereafter--but being endowed with vigor of body and mind, he developed an unusual store of self-reliance. His boyhood was spent in Meriwether County in the home of his aunt, Mrs. Wiley Hutcheson.

Education

Allen studied at Starrsville (Georgia) High School, Emory and Henry College (Virginia) and then at Emory College (Georgia), securing his Bachelor of Arts degree from the latter in 1858. At college he decided upon the ministry and received a license to preach.

On July 17, 1878 Emory College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Career

Allen was ordained and admitted to the Georgia Conference of his church, the Southern Methodist. In December 1859, with his wife and their five-months-old daughter he sailed from New York for Shanghai to be Georgia's first missionary ambassador to China. He had himself raised the funds for passage. Allen's resourcefulness and capacity came into full play soon after arrival in China in July 1860. The interruption of the American Civil War threw him upon his own support. For fifteen years, in fact, he provided not only for himself but for the Mission. While never abandoning missionary work he served as teacher and translator under the Chinese government.

He edited for the government an Official News Gazette. In 1867 he founded his Review of the Times, a weekly magazine in Chinese devoted to the interpretation of the West, a periodical which became later the organ under his editorship of the China Christian Literature Society.

Although he spent eighteen years in the employ of the Chinese government, toward the end of that period we find him giving more and more attention to specifically mission work. In 1881 he severed all official connection with the government and became superintendent of the China Mission of his church. His chief educational monument was the Anglo-Chinese College in Shanghai--later incorporated into Soochow University--which he founded in 1882 to train English-speaking Chinese for government and commercial posts. He was also directly concerned in the founding of the McTyeire School for girls.

Among his original writings in English may be cited The War Between China and Japan, in connection with the writing of which Li Hung Chang gave him access to government papers, and his magnum opus, Women in All Lands; or, China's Place Among the Nations.

He was twice sent to the General Conference of his church in America as delegate from the China Mission, and once represented his communion in an ecumenical conference in London. In his efforts to nationalize Christianity in China he addressed himself to the men of greatest influence, the scholars and rulers.

Achievements

  • Allen was known as a translator of some ninety volumes to satisfy the Chinese desire, newly awakened by the treaty of 1858 with England, and for his knowledge of world history, politics, and literature. He made himself the standard-bearer for forty years of the modern newspaper in Chinese and won distinction as a pioneer of Christian journalism in the E. Allen also attacked foot-binding vigorously, and championed the cause of China's womanhood. Allen built up a church congregation of over fifty in Shanghai and had opened several schools for boys, mostly notable the Anglo-Chinese College in Shanghai (Soochow University).

Religion

Allen came early under the influence of the fervent Methodism of his surroundings, and was converted during his high-school days.

Personality

Allen was of giant frame, and had a striking figure great mustache and beard. With booming voice, keen mind, and facile pen, he was forceful upon platform, in council hall, or in the study.

He did all his work with care and punctuality, leaving at his death no writing unfinished, no letter unanswered, and no bill unpaid.

Connections

In 1858 Allen was married to Mary Houston, who had finished in July her course at Georgia Wesleyan. They ultimately had ten children in all.

Father:
Young John Allen

Mother:
Mary (Wooten) Allen

Spouse:
Mary (Houston) Allen