Every society has its own phase of social reform, and Christian Women in Chinese Society narrates the stories of female Anglicans in early twentieth-century China. Being the first diocese that ordained a woman priest in the Anglican Communion (107), the Diocese of Victoria (now restructured as Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui) provided the environment for this to happen. The lack of ordained ministers (109), the need to reach women in a patriarchal society (72), and the rise of the feminist movement, along with the May Fourth Movement (25), all contributed to social progression.

This collection of essays was first presented in June 2015 at an academic conference at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (xi), where coeditor Wai Ching Angela Wong taught at the time. Most of them used the archives of the Church Mission Society and the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (HKSKH). While Asian feminist theologian Kwok Pui Lan proposes a cross-cultural approach to studying Chinese women and the Anglican Church (chapter 1), the other ten chapters are case studies, which show the women's involvement in Anglican ministry, whether they are Bible women (chapter 3), ordained priests (chapters 5 and 6), schoolteachers (chapter 8), pastors’ wives (chapter 9), or social workers (chapter 11).

The edited volume makes a strong case for how women became prominent in Anglican ministry despite being in a patriarchal society. Moreover, as Wai Ching Angela Wong and Patricia Chiu have rightly argued, their stories illustrate an interesting aspect in terms of the tension between “the Christian ‘civilizing’ mission and Chinese traditional culture” (12). However, while the volume shows the progression of gender equality in the last century, if we look at the leadership of the HKSKH in the twenty-first century, gender imbalance is still evident. I was hoping to see the connection between the past and the present, but perhaps this is difficult to show in an edited volume. Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable read and should be of interest to those who research feminism, Anglicanism, and Chinese Christian history.