Pioneer missionary Timothy Richard served forty-five years in China and became a household name among educated Chinese. Largely forgotten for decades, his amazing life is reintroduced in this most welcome volume. In 1880, Richard first articulated a vision for modern higher education as the basis for overall progress in China. His influence grew, along with high official honors, after 1891 when he became general secretary of the Christian Literature Society and continued as a leader in the Educational Association of China. By the mid-1890s, many Chinese scholars and officials began to embrace his expanding vision and approach to reform. After the 1900 Boxer Uprising, Richard was invited by the Chinese government to represent Protestant missions, advising and mediating the settlement for the losses of life and property, especially heavy in Shanxi. Following his recommendation, which received Imperial approval by June 1901, the province paid a fine, but it was used to found a college of Western learning in its capital city. The Imperial University of Shansi (now Shanxi University), with Chinese and Western Learning Departments, and overseen by Richard and the provincial governor as joint chancellors, was to serve as the model institution in a national system of modern higher education.

Eunice V. Johnson began her educational career as a psychologist with South Carolina's Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Commission for the Blind, and received her PhD from the University of Florida. Three life-changing years teaching English in Shanxi and Henan sparked her research on missionary contributions to education in China.

Carol Lee Hamrin served in the U.S. State Department as a China specialist, taught in Washington DC graduate schools, and has published widely.