Thy kingdom come draws on 177 invaluable photographs to document the historical development of the Anglican Church in modern China. The production, preservation and circulation of missionary photographs has attracted much scholarly attention because these images informed, influenced and shaped the manner in which people thought of Christianity as a global and indigenous religion, and engaged with it accordingly. Carefully woven into this photographic narrative is an informative institutional history of the Anglican Church vis-à-vis its global and local evangelistic initiatives as well as the Chinese congregants’ responses to larger historical trends such as wars, revolutions and modernisation. Compiling the visual representations of such trends, Wickeri and Chen have produced a colourful portrait of how Chinese clergy and laity asserted their Anglican identity during times of profound upheaval.

This visual history makes four major contributions. First, the editors have carefully selected relevant images to narrate the evolution of Anglican evangelisation, education, medical work and welfare service in diverse temporal and spatial settings, displaying a transnational commitment that involved British missionaries, Chinese congregants and secular authorities in joint efforts to build global ties and new hybrid identities. The Anglican Church served as a unique space where local and external actors met, accommodated and interacted with one another. After establishing footholds in both coastal and inland areas, the Anglicans played an indispensable role in advancing modern education and community welfare. One notable example is Kwong Yat-Shau (1840–1921), who in 1915 published A clear defense of the true way, a theological tract known for its elegant use of classical Chinese to defend Christianity against other popular religions (p. 57). A prominent social reformer, Kwong founded a church school for street children in the former Kowloon Walled City in the 1900s, marking the beginning of Anglican social service in the British colony (p. 2).

Second, this photographic narrative offers an authoritative account of the Anglican missionary movement through the analytical lens of cultural collaboration and modernisation, thereby enabling today's young readers to reconnect with previous generations and strengthening their sense of denominational identity. Far from being a nostalgic coffee-table book, this volume contextualises a visual history of an agitated period, presenting unprecedented dangers and challenges, but also freedom and opportunities for evangelisation. For example, the synthesis of Chinese and Western architectural styles in the Cathedral of Our Saviour in Beijing, finished in 1907, and the Holy Trinity Church in Kowloon, built in 1937, reflects a spirit of cosmopolitanism that was rooted in the Anglican tradition.

Furthermore, new community governance and societal relationships emerged inside and outside the mission compounds, advancing the widespread embrace of modernity across China. At the turn of the twentieth century Hong Kong Anglicans launched the St James's Settlement at a Daoist temple on Stone Nullah Lane in Wan Chai, gradually turning it into a major service centre for poor children (p. 99). The Christian charity came under attack during the twentieth century's Chinese nationalist and Communist revolutions, and a large part of its history during those times is missing in the official historiography. However, the well-chosen and researched photographs bring back evidence of the transformative nature of Anglicanism.

Third, this book challenges us to move beyond the fashionable discourse of cultural imperialism and Orientalism to problematise the missionaries’ visual representations of the local landscape and people. What scholars overlook is the fact that many Chinese depicted in the images seized the photographic moment to assert themselves and access the outside world. This entailed a performative component in which the depicted Chinese appropriated the photographic opportunity to present their new visual selves to the outside world. Therefore, photographic modernity was a dynamic instrument that shaped and democratised Chinese-Christian encounters. This is particularly true for an anonymous, yet charismatic, Anglican Bible woman who preached to children in Macau during the late 1940s (p. 107), and for Florence Li Tim-Oi (1907–92), the first ordained female priest in the Anglican Communion, who stepped up to take care of the spiritual needs of congregants during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (pp. 96, 145). Another renowned church leader is the ninth bishop of Hong Kong and Macau, Peter Kong-Kit Kwong (pp. 159–62, 167, 173, 177–8, 180). While Bishop Kwong distinguished himself as a skilful figure in public relations, defending the Anglicans’ institutional interests during the British colonial and postcolonial era, he was actively involved in Chinese Christian and international ecumenical circles.

Finally, early twentieth-century Chinese photographers were elitist and showed little interest in the masses. The Anglican photographs record the experience of common people, such as patients at the Pakhoi Leprosarium in Guangxi Province (pp. 67–8), rural worshippers at St Peter's Church in Castle Peak (p. 131), refugees (pp. 86, 113) and underprivileged children at diocesan schools (pp. 87, 101, 106). Some illustrations reveal that two distinguished English-speaking schools in Hong Kong, the Diocesan Boys’ and Diocesan Girls’, originated as an orphanage for boys and a training institute for women, respectively (pp. 136–7). Despite its seemingly elitist orientation and top-down ecclesiastical infrastructure, Anglicanism has not only transformed itself into a Sinicised religion but has also coexisted, intermingled and fused with local sensitivities into a socially engaged gospel.

To conclude, this nicely compiled photographic history should be of interest to scholars concerned with the globalisation of Anglicanism and the preservation of historical heritage. Its easily accessible prose is appropriate for general readers, and its extensive illustrations complement many in-depth scholarly analyses of Anglican and other Protestant denominations in modern China.