Gladys Aylward, Missionary to China – Small Woman but Big Life – Faith Stories You Won’t Forget Series

 

Gladys Aylward’s Long Journey to the Mission Field

per Wikipedia

Background

Gladys May Aylward (24 February 1902 – 3 January 1970) was a British evangelical Christian missionary to China, whose story was told in the book, The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess, published in 1957. In 1958, the story was made into the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman; although the movie was produced by Twentieth Century Fox, it was filmed entirely in North Wales and England.^{[citation needed]}

 Early life

Aylward was born to a working class family in Edmonton, North London, in 1902. Her parents were Thomas John Aylward and Rodina Florence Aylward (née Whiskin). Her siblings were Laurence and Violet.^[1] Although she became a domestic worker (housemaid) at an early age, she always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary and studied with great determination in order to be fitted for the role, only to be turned down because her academic background was inadequate, and the China Inland Mission to which she applied was convinced that it was not possible to learn the language at her age.

Her determination was such that, in 1932, she spent her life savings on a passage to Yangcheng, Shanxi Province, China. The perilous trip took her across Siberia, where she was forced to get off the train she was on and find an alternate mode of transportation to her destination.

 

 Work in China

On her arrival in Yangcheng, Aylward worked with an older missionary, Jeannie Lawson, to found The Inn of the Eight Happinesses. For a time she served as an assistant to the Chinese government as a “foot inspector” by touring the countryside to enforce the new law against footbinding young Chinese girls. She met with much success in a field that had produced much resistance, including sometimes violence against the inspectors.^{[citation needed]}

Aylward became a Chinese citizen in 1936 and was a revered figure among the people, taking in orphans and adopting several herself, intervening in a volatile prison riot and advocating prison reform, risking her life many times to help those in need.^[2] In 1938, the region was invaded by Japanese forces, and Aylward led over 100 orphans to safety over the mountains, despite being wounded herself. She never married.

She returned to Britain in 1948, where, after 10 years she sought to return to China. However, she was denied re-entry by the Communist government and instead settled in Taiwan, in 1958. There she founded the Gladys Aylward Orphanage, where she worked until her death in 1970.^[

 

Learn more about her life and work at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Aylward

 

Gladys Aylward in Pictures

The YouTube video below is a narrated pictorial story of Gladys Aylward’s exceptional life story which transformed a four foot ten inch “Small Woman” into a Giant of the Christian Faith.

 

 

Shortly after her biography by Alan Burgess was released in 1957 the movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was released by 20th Century Fox in 1958.  Gladys was not pleased with the movie for a number of reasons:

per Wikipedia

The Inn of the Eight Happinesses

A film based on her life, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, was released in 1958. It drew from the book The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess. Although she found herself a figure of international interest, thanks to the popularity of the film and television and media interviews, Aylward was mortified by her depiction in the film and the many liberties it took.^{[citation needed]} The tall, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman was inconsistent with Aylward’s small stature, dark hair and cockney accent. The struggles of Aylward and her family to affect her initial trip to China were disregarded in favour of a movie plot device of an employer “condescending to write to ‘his old friend’ Jeannie Lawson.” Also, Aylward’s dangerous, complicated travels across Russia and China were reduced to, “a few rude soldiers,” after which, “Hollywood’s train delivered her neatly to Tsientsin.”^[4] Many characters and place names were changed, even when these names had significant meaning, such as those of her adopted children and of the inn, named for the Chinese belief in the number 8 as being auspicious. Colonel Linnan was portrayed as half-European, a change which she found insulting to his real Chinese lineage, and she felt her reputation was damaged by the Hollywood-embellished love scenes in the film. Not only had she never kissed a man, but the film’s ending portrayed her character leaving the orphans in order to re-join the colonel elsewhere,^[5] even though in reality she did not retire from working with orphans until she was 60 years old.^[6]

 

The link below takes you to the original movie trailer.

Take a look.

 

Whether the movie is a fair representation of Gladys’ life story or not, it did pay tribute the extraordinary life story of this important Hero of the Faith.

So don’t forget this Faith Story of Gladys Aylward – Small Woman –  Big Life for God.

 

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Gladys Aylward, Missionary to China – Small Woman but Big Life – Faith Stories You Won’t Forget Series

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