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The Endicott Story in China
James G. Endicott (Wen Yiuzhang)
was born in Sichuan province of Canadian missionary parents in
1898, the late years of the Qing Dynasty. After service in the
Canadian army in France during the First World War and after
graduation from the University of Toronto, he returned to China
with his bride, Mary Austin, as an evangelical and teaching missionary
of the United Church of Canada. The Endicotts settled in Chongqing,
in 1925, where the young missionary soon became fluent in the
Chinese language.
During the war to resist Japan,
after Chongqing was severely bombed, the United Church mission
responded favourably to a request from Madame Chiang Kai-shek,
in 1939, to have Endicott serve as a political adviser for the
New Life Movement.
Later, after the United States
entered the war against Japan, its secret service, the Office
of Strategic Services, requested Endicott to become one of its
agents with special responsibility to find out more about the
Chinese communist movement. His reports were forwarded to the
American government in Washington. From getting to know Zhou
Enlai, Qiao Guanhua and others in the course of this assignment,
Endicott had his eyes opened about the meaning and course of
the Chinese Revolution.
Back in Canada, where he became
chairman of the Canadian Peace Congress and vice-chair of the
World Peace Council, he hailed the founding the Peoples' Republic
of China. During the Cold War and for more than 40 years, he
and Mary Austin published the Canadian Far Eastern Newsletter,
which advocated understanding and friendship with the revolutionary
New China. His advocacy led to public controversy with his church
and with the Canadian government, which at one time considered
putting him on trial for treason.
Before the end of his life,
his church, the City of Toronto and York University all recognized
him as one of Canada's prophetic voices in coming to terms with
the march of history in Asia and for the possibility of peaceful
co-existence between differing social systems. Shortly before
he died, in 1993, the Chinese government honoured Endicott with
the Peoples' Friendship Ambassador Award.
Interview
with Stephen Endicott
Yafang Shi (Radio Canada International)
interviews Dr. Stephen Endicott about the life of his father,
James Gareth Endicott. Dr. Endicott presented "When China
Stood Up: The Experience of Dr. James Gareth Endicott"-
the Inaugural Asian Heritage Month Lecture at York University
in June 2008. Interview broadcast on 17 June 2008.
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Canadian missionaries about to
cross the Yangtze River at Chongqing on a sanpan, 1932. The Endicotts
are at the front centre left. |
Endicott, with his fluent Sichuanese
accent, encouraging army recruits during the War of Resistance
to Japan, Chongqing, 1940 |
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Zhou Enlai greets Endicott in
Beijing, 1972 |
Endicott, circa 1950 |
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