Recent scholarship on the history of Christianity has developed to create quite fascinating studies that highlight a theme of interaction. At times this comes from the perspective of the foreign missionaries interacting with Chinese society through their religious and secular work. At other times it is the story of Chinese Christian communities and their struggles to find a relationship with their own society. This edited volume brings in the theme of interaction from both sides as it focuses on these issues in the Chaoshan community and highlights specific cultural elements from the region in the expansion of Christianity.

The main chapters of the book following the introduction are gathered into three thematic groups. The first provides a detailed look at women, both Chinese and western, in the Christian movement. Through these chapters Ellen Cai and Carol Nie provide greater insight into Chinese bible women and the conflicts facing female missionaries stationed in the field. Both of these chapters move away from the focus on the male narrative that has a tendency to emerge in studies of the China missions to provide greater insight into the lives of women in the Christian movement. These two chapters create a better sense of lives of Chinese bible women and the struggles of female missionaries from different social classes. The following three chapters – by Hajo Frölich, Ellen Cai and Qiyao Li – move away from a specific focus on gender to look at institution-building and socioeconomic development. The focus of all three articles is on the mission community and its interaction with the local society. The authors do not portray the missionaries as agents of change but consider how developing economic and social conditions affected the work of the mission community. Most interesting in this regard was Cai's article that traced the development of the needlework industry in Chaozhou as it emerged from the mission school system. What was meant to be a sideline occupation for the students was turned into a thriving industry once it moved outside the mission schools. The last two articles, by Christie Chow and Joseph Lee and by Weqing Hu, turn away from the missionaries to focus more on the local Christian population after 1949. Chow and Lee's article, in particular, looks at the relationship between the Christian population and the state noting the survival tactics employed by the population. Hu's article engages with the authenticity of the The Peng genealogy that was compiled in 2010 and examines the role of lineage in conversion from a single family's perspective.

The focus on the single region of Chaoshan allows the book to provide articles that appeal to a broader range of scholars. Those interested more in the indigenisation of Christianity may focus on the articles by Cai, Hu and Chow and Lee that have a clear focus on Chinese Christians. The other articles provide greater insight into the missions and the influence of Chinese society and policies on their work. Those interested in economic development will find the articles on missionary real estate purchases and the needlework industry particularly fascinating.

The articles also provide some comparative models that scholars of other regions can expand upon. For example, there were needlework enterprises or other training for manual work in other regions, notably Shandong. For the mission scholar community it would be interesting to see if the training models hold up or whether these are specific to the Chaoshan region due to its strong emphasis on lineage that is noted in the introduction. The same is true of the experiences of Christians through the early bible women to the period after 1949. The Christian population in other regions clearly manifested some of the same work and experiences. I am left wondering how similar their experiences were.