Repository logo
 

The Largest Mission Press in The World: The American Presbyterian Mission Press and the Development of Modern Vernacular Language Printing in East Asia

Date

2024-05-22

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

ORCID

0000-0003-0626-1642

Type

Thesis

Degree Level

Doctoral

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, American missionaries operated one of the largest mission presses in the world. The American Presbyterian Mission Press (APMP) in Shanghai was one of the first modern print institutions in East Asia and it incorporated all facets of the printing industry under one roof—typefounding, type setting, editing, printing, binding, and book sales and distribution. This consolidation of print and book production, married with the modern method of typographic printing, led to the mass production of standardized Chinese and Japanese language books. Through a focus on the enormous scale of typographic printing undertaken by American missionaries between 1800 and 1931, and the use of archival sources and digital humanities methodologies (data analysis and Graphic Information Systems [GIS] mapping), this dissertation investigates how the typefaces forged by the APMP fostered early modes and methods of linguistic standardization and vernacular language printing, and reveals the global networks of intellectual and technological exchange that made modern Chinese and Japanese typography a practical reality. I argue that the depth of American Protestant missionaries’ linguistic knowledge and subsequent large-scale production of printed books standardized the appearance of Chinese characters, Hanzi 漢字, while simultaneously representing the myriad vernacular dialects spoken across China. The dedicated investment of American missionaries into the development of Chinese typographic printing instigated a type-revolution in East Asia. This history uncovers intersectional nuances between the acquisition of Chinese linguistic knowledge and technologically driven change as it relates to the formation of the modern Chinese and American nation state.

Description

Keywords

China, Protestant Missionaries, Nineteenth Century, Printing, Typography, American Presbyterian Mission Press, William Gamble, Motoki Shōzō, Vernacular Language, Chinese Language

Citation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

History

Program

History

Part Of

item.page.relation.ispartofseries

DOI

item.page.identifier.pmid

item.page.identifier.pmcid