Welsh Women in China: 200 years of extraordinary encounters with China

Marking International Women’s Day, the 200^th anniversary of higher education in Wales, and the 15^th Anniversary of the the UWTSD Confucius Institute, we are proud to host the Welsh Women in China talk and exhibition.

Focusing on the lives of five women and spanning two centuries, we explore some of the lesser-known stories of women who were undaunted by the barriers of language and culture and travelled to or lived in China. These women left lasting impact and memories in the places they visited. Some of them, as wives of missionaries, were involved in promoting Chinese women’s health. Others were independent travellers and are remarkable for their acts of courage and endurance.

Their stories will be told by author and Chinese historian Ena Niedergang, author of Wales China: 250 Years of History. All the women featured in the talk and exhibition either come from or have a strong connection with Wales.

Gladys Aylward is the most well-known figure and was made famous through the 1958 film: Inn of the Sixth Happiness starring Ingrid Bergan and shot on location in North Wales.  Less well-known is Gladys’ connection to Swansea where she lived and worked for three years.

Betsy Cadwaladyr from North Wales is famous for her nursing career with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean war. However, she also travelled to China and had an unexpected audience with the emperor sometime after 1830.

Margaret John, born in Madagascar to missionary parents who came from Machynlleth, was the wife of Swansea-born missionary Dr.Griffith John who spent fifty years working in Wuhan and Hubei Province from 1861 to 1911. The Margaret Hospital in Wuhan was named after her.

Jane Williams from Llanelli was a medical missionary working in Yunnan Province in the 1930s.

Taking us into the 21^st Century is Carmarthenshire resident, Megan Knoyle Lewis who in 2012 organised the project ‘The Long Horse Ride’ from Shanhaiguan – the sea end of the Great Wall of China overland, to Worm’s Head on the Gower Peninsula in Swansea, a distance of 5,265 miles.

The launch event for the exhibition in UWTSD’s Swansea Business School campus is at 18:00 on 8 March 2022, in the Confucius Institute Chinese Business and Culture Centre. Ena Niedergang will narrate the stories of these intrepid women and introduce the exhibition which features Gladys Aylward’s traditional Chinese clothes.

The exhibition moves to UWTSD’s Lampeter campus from 18 March to the CI Reading Room in the campus library when Ena Niedergang will repeat the talk and a Q&A session. The exhibition will continue in Lampeter for two weeks. In addition, courtesy of the Roderic Bowen Library and Archive, some materials from the 1793 Macartney Embassy to China will also be on display.

For more information see https://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/confucius-institute/events/

or contact k.krajewska@uwtsd.ac.uk 

Further Information

For more information please contact Arwel Lloyd, Principal PR and Communications Officer, on 07384 467076 / arwel.lloyd@uwtsd.ac.uk