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“...OVERVIEW OF THE CHEFOO MAGAZINE
The Chefoo Magazine was established in 1908 as the official organ of the Chefoo School's
Association. The Chefoo School had been founded in 1881 by the China Inland Mission, and the
alumni association was established in January 1908. At the end of their first year they
produced their first magazine as a means of communicating with their membership, potentially
in the UK, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Shanghai, and anywhere else in the world
where former students were located. Although the Association still exists (2019), the last
magazine was published in 2018. This was a remarkable 110-year run, especially when
considering that the School in China was closed in the early months of 1951 when Westerners
were forced to leave China.
Throughout much of the history of the Association, it was dominated by alumni from Great
Britain. This is not surprising given that for its entire time in China it was a British school.
However, soon after it was formed...”
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“...produced by the
School, is included in this digitized collection.
Sources
There are two sources for this digitized collection: the Chefoo Schools Association archival
collections at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London (SOAS), and
at Wheaton College in Illinois, USA. Both collections are strategically connected to collections
of the ClM/OMF. Thanks must be extended to the late Norman Cliff in the UK for establishing
the SOAS collection, based at that time on the UK CSA collection. Thankyous are also extended
to the archives staff at SOAS who have always been very helpful. Likewise, at Wheaton. This
collection was established by me in 2006. It was based on the CSA collection that accumulated
over the years in Toronto. When I took over as Chair of the North America Branch in 1999, and
subsequently became Editor of the Chefoo Magazine in 2003,1 acquired these documents from
OMF, and from Rob Joyce, a former Chairman and Editor. While much of this documentation...”
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“...to the branch and after conferring with our other two directors they passed this entire
collection to the OMF archives at their headquarters in Singapore. There were no copies in this
collection that were not already in the Toronto/SOAS collections.
Where the Magazine was Published
Until late 1971 The Chefoo Magazine was published in Great Britain. This function was
transferred that year to Toronto, apparently because the UK Branch was not able to find
someone to carry on this function. For the next twenty years the magazine was published out
of Toronto. It returned to the UK in 1991 and remained there until 2003, when once again it
went back to Canada where I published it in Barrie, Ontario, an hour north of Toronto. I did so
until the closing of the magazine in 2018, by which time the UK branch had ceased to exist, in
2014. Their functions of treasurer and distribution of the magazine were taken on by me as
magazine editor.
Frequency of Publication
The frequency of the magazine has varied...”
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“...school at Kuling that was evacuated quickly a decade later.
4. A museum collection of the Chefoo School was established at the Yantai Municipal Museum
in March 2018, in partnership with the Chefoo Schools Association. Li Xin, a private citizen
from Shanghai who attended school in Yantai in his early years, was very instrumental in
facilitating this remarkable joint venture.
Post-China Chefoo Schools
When the China Inland Mission was forced out of China in 1951, they decided to continue
their missionary work in other Pacific Rim countries. They changed the name of the mission to
Overseas Missionary Fellowship (today OMF International). They now took a different
approach to providing an education for the children of their missionaries. They established
small schools - one has described them as house schools - in the various countries where they
were now established, and these were just Prep schools (for latency aged children). After this
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“...the children transferred to what became known as hostels (today they would be described as
group homes), in their home countries where they attended local schools in their respective
communities. One group home was established in western Canada (Three Hills, Alberta), two in
the US (Wheaton, near Chicago, and Ivyland north of Philadelphia) and one in Melbourne,
Australia. Since there were too few children in New Zealand, a foster home system was
established. In the UK, the land that invented boarding schools (perhaps), a hostel was
established where children spent vacations and holidays, but from there they were sent to
various boarding schools in the country.
Although there were exceptions, few post-China alumni have been interested in joining the
Chefoo Schools Association. For the most part they have seen this Association as the domain of
the China alumni, with whom they have not felt much affinity. This is not surprising given the
contrasts between the China and post-China experiences...”
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“...The final issue of the magazine was delayed for several months, for a very good reason.
Perhaps the crowning event in the history of the Chefoo School in China, and of the alumni
association, was the invitation in 2016 to establish a permanent exhibit of the Chefoo School at
the large Yantai (Chefoo) Municipal Museum. I had been instrumental in gathering many
documents, photos, and artifacts from CSA members world-wide, then organizing and
cataloguing them before shipping them to the Museum. This event was formally launched on
March 28, 2018 and I was invited to attend and give a speech on behalf of the Association.
Several other Chefusians were also able to attend, and we were given a very warm welcome
over several days by City and Museum leaders. This event was of course the theme of the last
Chefoo Magazine.
Ian Grant
Director, Chefoo Schools Association
Summer 2019
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