Robert Morrison and the beginnings of Protestant missions in China
Robert Morrison arrived in China in 1807 with a task whose results would extend far beyond his lifetime. As the first resident Protestant missionary in China, he helped lay the foundation through language study, Bible translation, and nurturing a small community of believers.[1]
Born in Northumberland in 1782 and raised in Newcastle, Morrison was apprenticed to his father, a maker of lasts and boot trees used in shoemaking. His Presbyterian upbringing and growing Christian conviction led him towards missionary service. After theological training, the London Missionary Society sent him to China. Unable to travel directly aboard an East India Company ship, he sailed through North America, secured passage from New York, and reached southern China.[1,2]
The work required patience. Restrictions on contact between Chinese people and foreigners complicated language learning and evangelism. Morrison became a British East India Company employee in 1809, gaining a foothold to reside there while dividing his time between his employment in the trading business of the day and his personal focus on the Christian mission. This became his twin identity: a trade interpreter within the commercial structures of British overseas expansion, and a biblical translator alongside his spiritual commitment.[1]
In July 1814, after years of preparation, Morrison baptized Tsae A-ko, the first indigenous convert, at a secluded spring near the sea. Morrison’s journal records that the young man helped prepare the New Testament for printing and came to trust in Jesus. This early believer participated in the mission’s work and received its message.[2]
Morrison’s Chinese New Testament appeared in 1814. Working with William Milne, he completed a translation of the whole Bible in 1819. They also participated in the founding of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca in 1818. His dictionary and educational work equipped others to continue the mission. The fruit included tools for future ministry, alongside the beginnings of a church. Morrison understood his translation was a beginning and expected later workers to improve it. That humility remains a valuable lesson for cross-cultural ministry today.[1]
Today, Christians in mainland China worship in both government-registered churches and unregistered congregations. Their number remains disputed. Pew Research Center’s 2023 study reported that about 20 million adults identified as Christian in a 2018 survey, noting that sensitivity and different definitions produce widely varying estimates.[3]
USCIRF’s 2026 report, assessing 2025, documents continuing pressure on independent Protestant leaders and house churches, alongside restrictions affecting registered communities.[4] Morrison’s story invites us to pray for these believers and to value patient service whose full harvest we may never see.
References
[1] Wilbert R. Shenk, “Morrison, Robert,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, edited by Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), pp. 473–474. Authorised digital reprint.
[2] Eliza Morrison, compiler, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, D.D., vol. 1 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1839), pp. 1–4, 128–132 and 408–410. Digitised book.
[3] Pew Research Center, Measuring Religion in China (30 August 2023), chapter 4, “Christianity”. The population figure refers to adults identifying as Christian in the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey; it is not a 2026 count.
[4] United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 2026 Annual Report (March 2026), “China,” pp. 22–23, assessing conditions during 2025.
Artwork reference
The Canton background is based on an unknown Chinese artist’s 1810 copper painting of the foreign factories. The waterfront buildings, flagpoles, and river craft follow that period reference. The missionary’s pose and viewpoint are an artistic reconstruction.
