The title of this very useful monograph is slightly misleading, in that coverage of the translated literature extends somewhat beyond the period named into the early decades of the 20th century. It also covers a literature more substantial than some might suppose from the terminology used, since it is possible that if anyone has encountered the tracts distributed by Protestant Christians in recent times they will think of pamphlet-sized items rather than books. Yet the Religious Tract Society in Britain published not only such flimsy items but also such weighty products as lengthy biographies celebrating the lives of missionaries, so that in this work we find accounts of a number of different genres, both short and long: catechisms; translations of Pilgrim's Progress; Sunday School textbooks; biographies; and theological and doctrinal studies. Most if not all of these types of translation, too, did not cease to be published at the end of the 19th century, even if their more recent history – unlike that of the Christian Bible in modern China – still remains to be told.

As a resource towards that end, however, this volume will surely prove indispensable. The opening three chapters set the scene by describing the Protestant missionary enterprise in China; the institutional organization of the various bodies responsible for the relevant literature; and the teamwork between missionaries and converts required to produce results. The last of these chapters might be expanded now by reference to a useful study by Christopher Daily, “Robert Morrison and the multicultural beginning of Chinese Protestantism” (Social Sciences and Missions 25, 2012, pp. 9–34) though the work under review seems to have been completed before the 2010 dissertation upon which that article draws had become available. The next three chapters provide a survey and then a close study of two examples illustrative of the most important genres covered: The Peep of Day, a work directed at children, and The Anxious Enquirer, directed at the educated literati. A brief chapter of preliminary conclusions follows, from which it is plain to see that this stout volume forms but a beginning. And indeed one finds scattered references elsewhere which would suggest that even the basic task of assembling a bibliography of this literature is still very much a work in progress. The musician Steve Race (1921–2009), for example, tells us in his biography of his grandfather, The Two Worlds of Joseph Race (Souvenir Press, 1988, p. 151), how Joseph wrote and translated into Chinese a 22-page polemic denouncing vegetarianism – which was, of course, closely allied in his eyes to Buddhism.

This slim diatribe, which perhaps had no published English original and so may well fall beyond the remit of the author's investigations, finds no place either in the body of this work or even in the copious indexes that end the book. But these will no doubt form an invaluable resource for future bibliographers. The first three-page index, concerning Protestant mission and publishers, is, one must assume, intended to serve as an aid to readers of the main text preceding it, rather than as a substitute for the more extensive work of R. G. Tiedemann, Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (M. E. Sharpe, 2009), which might perhaps have merited mention at this point. But the second, on Protestant missionary and Chinese translators, is more substantial (pp. 232–248), while the third, which provides a catalogue of “Chinese Translations of Christian Literature, 1812–1907,” runs to 441 titles (pp. 249–288); this is followed by a list of the 20 titles or groups of works that had been found the “most well received” by 1907. Two more indexes cover the translations of two particularly productive toilers in this particular field, Favell L. Mortimer and William Muirhead, who accumulated 27 and 92 (sic!) translations into Chinese respectively. Twenty-four pages of illustrations round out the volume.

The diligence of these long-forgotten men and women impresses deeply, of course, but so does the assiduity of the author who has brought their work into focus once more. Many, including perhaps many not remotely interested in the larger question of religious gaps, will surely consult it, while for those that are interested in such larger questions it will constitute a most useful point of departure for further research. Needless to say, further research from John T. P. Lai would also be more than welcome.