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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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“...one suspects that this caused a bit of a row; the school issue was not repeated. That school
magazine is included in this digitized collection, as is one name The Magnate (twice, October
1926 and October 1927, produced by the Boys School), and The Chefusian that came out from
1928 to at lease 1939. A separate short essay giving an overview of magazines 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...”
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“...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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“...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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