200 Years of Quaker Engagement with China

A rising China will help define the 21st century. Yet despite Quaker commitments to peace, there are linguistic, cultural, and political barriers that prevent Friends from engaging with China. This workshop seeks to overcome these barriers using Quakers’ long history in the country as a roadmap for future engagement.

Workshop Description

In this workshop, we will learn about the history of China through the lives of individual Friends. Over the past 200 years, Friends have played unique and sometimes extraordinary roles in the course of Chinese history.

For each of the first three days of the workshop, we will focus on a key turning point in Chinese history, including the Opium Wars (1839-1860), the Republican Period (1912-1949), and the period of Reform and Opening Up (1978-present). In these sessions, we will first overview the forces shaping China at that time before zooming in to examine the lives of Friends. To this end we will use video clips, audio clips, images, quotations, and primary documents to try to convey the lived experiences of these individuals. A key theme of the workshop will be to consider how Friends today might approach the moral struggles identified by Friends in each period.

In the second half of the workshop, we will move into a format of more open discussion, with an eye to current events and Friends’ engagement with China right now. On the last two days, we will turn our attention to major issues involving China, including the “great power relationship between the United States and China, economic development, environmental protection, and human rights. As these are vast topics in and of themselves, we will leave room for participants to direct the conversation toward areas of particular interest for the group.

A little less than half of the workshop will be given to lecture, a small portion to worshipful reflection, and the remaining time will be devoted to more participatory activities.

Non-lecture activities will include:

• Group exercises: “What do you know? and “What are your assumptions?
• Breakout discussions
• Role play
• Group brainstorming
• Free writing

Leader Experience

Patrick has helped lead this workshop three times over the last 6 years, twice with partners in person and once individually online.