Once China had been weakened, its neighbor, Japan, saw a great opportunity to expand. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, China had lost control of Taiwan completely as well as most of its influence over the Korean Peninsula.
In 1914, three years after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, World War I began in Europe. China eventually sided with the Allies (Great Britain, France and, Russia) against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In joining with the Allies, China had hoped to be taken seriously as a nation and gain some respect as a country when the war was over. However, things did not work out that way. At the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I, the Allies completely ignored China’s demand that in return for fighting in the war, foreign powers should pull out of the country and leave China to govern herself.
The people of China were furious at this result. They felt they had been betrayed by the Allies. This, in turn, led to even more bitterness towards foreigners than had existed before the war. To the Chinese, foreigners, along with their ways of doing things, were symbols of China’s humiliation.
It was to this China that Eric Liddell, now twenty-three, would be returning. His father’s letters made it clear to Eric that unlike when he was a small boy with lots of Chinese friends, he would not be welcome in many Chinese homes, and sometimes his life might even be in danger. Despite the warning, Eric was determined to go. He felt that God had called him to work in China, and he was prepared for whatever might happen to him while he was there.
When Eric had left China as a child, the only way to get to and from England was by ship. Now, in 1925, the Trans-Siberian Railway rolled across western Russia, over the Ural Mountains, and across Siberia, finally ending in Vladivostok on the Pacific coast. In eastern Siberia, a line branched off from the Trans-Siberian Railway and headed south into China. It was possible to board a train in The Hague, Holland, and go overland all the way across Europe and Asia to Tientsin, China. That was the route Eric chose. From London he took a boat to Holland, where he caught the train. Two weeks later, the train was rolling along in China.
Eric did not go all the way to Tientsin right away, however. The railway passed through the seaside town of Pei-tia-ho, where Eric’s entire family was waiting for him. They were all on vacation there together and thought it would be a good idea for Eric to join them for six weeks before traveling on to Tientsin to prepare for the new school year.
It was late afternoon when the train finally pulled to a stop at the station in Pei-tia-ho. Eric clambered onto the platform and into the welcoming arms of his family. He was thrilled to be seeing his parents, Jenny, Ernest, and Robert again, and he was especially glad to meet Robert’s new wife.
The family stayed up very late that night swapping stories with Eric about what had happened to them since they had last seen each other. They were especially anxious for Eric to tell them all about what it was like to run and win a gold medal in the Olympic Games.
There was one matter, though, that James Liddell decided to leave until the next morning to discuss. Over several cups of hot tea the following morning, he broke the news to his son that there were no students to teach the following year at the Anglo-Chinese college. All five hundred of them had gone on strike!
It had all begun in Shanghai when a group of Chinese workers at a Japanese-owned cotton mill had been fired. All of the other Chinese workers at the mill had gone on strike in support of their fired co-workers. Students in Shanghai had decided to hold a demonstration to support the workers, but their demonstration had turned into a nightmare. British Colonial forces, who protected the British quarter of Shanghai (or British concession, as it was known), fired on the Chinese students and striking workers. One demonstrator was killed in the shooting.
The event became known as the “May 30th Massacre,” and news of it spread quickly throughout China. Students and workers went on strike all along the eastern coast of China, and Tientsin, with its large foreign population, was a natural target for such a strike. The Anglo-Chinese college was one of the first places in Tientsin to empty out. Students there were made to feel ashamed at going to a school where five of the thirty teachers were from England and where the English language was taught. Soon they stopped showing up for class, and the school had closed early for the year.
Over the next few days, Eric met most of the other English teachers from his new school. The teachers were all vacationing in Pei-tia-ho. Most mission organizations seemed to have vacation cottages there. At picnics and over games of tennis, the teachers discussed the situation among themselves. Eventually, they decided to open the school as usual in September and wait to see whether any of their Chinese students came back to enroll for the new year.
Eric, who had forgotten nearly all the Chinese he’d spoken so well as a small child, set about studying the language while in Pei-tia-ho. Soon he found himself remembering more and more Chinese words and phrases.
Surprisingly, Eric also knew most of the missionaries vacationing in Pei-tia-ho. Many of them had stayed in London and visited their sons at Eltham College. Others had visited Eric in Edinburgh when they were home on furlough. In fact, there was only one family there he had not seen before—the McKenzies from Canada, who had two daughters, Florence and Margaret.
After six wonderful weeks in Pei-tia-ho with his family, Eric boarded the train again for the final leg of his journey to Tientsin. He needed to prepare for his classes in case any of the students decided to return to school. The rest of his family, except his father, stayed on a little longer in Pei-tia-ho. James Liddell traveled back to Tientsin with his son to keep him company.
Eric’s first glance of the city where he had been born was through the window of the train. Tientsin was alive with activity. Everyone seemed to be on the move: Bicycles, rickshaws, electric streetcars, pedestrians, and motorcars all jostled for space on the narrow paved roads.
At the station in Tientsin, James Liddell hired two rickshaws. The drivers quickly stowed their passengers’ suitcases on the back of the rickshaws and helped Eric and his father get seated. On their way back to the house, James Liddell had the drivers detour past the docks.
Although Tientsin was thirty miles up the Haiho River from the Yellow Sea, it was a sprawling, bustling port that serviced Peking, one hundred miles farther inland. The docks fascinated Eric. They seemed to go on for miles, and everything imaginable was being unloaded from the barges that had come up the river.
Surrounding the docks were hovels where the workers lived. Eric had seen overcrowded housing conditions in London and Edinburgh, but nothing like this. It was hard to describe the dwellings as houses. They were ramshackle shacks packed so close together it was hard for people to move between them.
As the rickshaw drivers trotted on, they passed through a police checkpoint, and Eric’s father yelled to Eric that they had entered the French concession. This meant that French policemen patrolled the streets and French, not Chinese, law had to be obeyed there. As they entered the concession, the slums instantly gave way to beautiful white mansions with swimming pools and tennis courts nestled along stately, tree-lined streets. For some reason, which no one could remember by 1925, the homes used by missionaries of the London Missionary Society were all located in the French concession. At James Liddell’s instruction, the rickshaw driver stopped outside number 6, London Mission Street.
Eric whistled as he climbed down from the rickshaw. “This is some house you have here, Father,” he commented as he looked up at the four-story mansion.
“We lived in a much smaller one until the London Missionary Society found out you were going to be living with us. Then they insisted we move into this monstrosity,” said his father in his thick Scottish accent. “Still, with the amount of entertaining your mother does, it will be filled with people in no time.”
Eric smiled. He knew what his father meant. His mother was always inviting people over for a meal or to stay for a few days. “Aye, the house will be well used, that’s for certain,” he replied, helping his father with their suitcases.
The house was as impressive inside as it was outside. On the ground floor were the kitchen and dining room and his father’s study. The living areas were on the second floor, and all the bedrooms and bathrooms were located on the third floor. There were two empty bedrooms for Eric to choose from, but instead, he kept climbing the stairs. The whole top floor was attic rooms, each with a sloped ceiling. All of the attic rooms were used for storage. Eric strolled over to the attic window that overlooked the tennis court in the backyard. “This will do me fine,” he said, looking around at the boxes that would have to be moved to another room.
It didn’t take Eric long to get the boxes moved and to set up his belongings in the new room. Most of his suitcases were filled with books about religion or science.
Eric was eager to see the Anglo-Chinese college. First thing the following morning he made his way to the school. He stood outside the gates staring at the huge gray stone building. He had been told that the school was called the “Eton of China,” after the famous private school in England. Eric could see why. It looked just like an English school, but it was right in the center of a Chinese city! Eric swung the iron gate open and walked up the cobblestone path to the wide stone stairs flanked on either side by potted plants. He climbed the stairs and rang the doorbell. The door was quickly opened by a Chinese woman who spoke perfect English. Eric introduced himself to her and asked whether any of the other staff were around. The Chinese woman told him to wait. Moments later, the school principal came to the door. “Dr. Lavington Hart. Come in,” he said in a booming voice, thrusting out his hand to shake Eric’s.
“Eric Liddell, Sir. Pleased to meet you,” Eric responded as the two men shook hands.
“How about a tour of the place?” asked Dr. Hart. “I expect you want to see what you’ve signed up for.” He laughed as he patted Eric on the back and motioned him outside again.
The first place Dr. Hart took Eric was to the sports field. On the way there, he explained why he had started the school twenty-three years before. “When I came to China,” he said, “all the missionaries were concentrating on reaching the very poorest people with the gospel message. Of course, that’s wonderful, but no one seemed to have thought of the rich people, the politicians, lawyers, doctors, and university professors. No one was sharing the gospel message with them. I began to think it was these people, the rich and influential, who were going to lead China into the future. I began to wonder what would happen if some of these future leaders were Christians. So I set up the school for the sons of rich and influential Chinese people. Many of the boys who’ve been through the school have become Christians, and they have gone on to universities here and overseas and then to important positions all over China.”
Eric nodded. “Yes,” he said, “I remember several of them coming to talk to us when I was at Eltham College in London.”
“Then you know the quality of young men we are turning out here. And sports are a big part of it,” said Dr. Hart with a flourish as they turned the corner at the back of the buildings and reached the sports field. “In fact,” he went on, “we were the first school in North China to begin a sports and physical education program. You should have been here the first few years when we were trying to get this all off the ground. Looking back, it’s rather funny, but at the time it was very difficult.”
“Why was that?” asked Eric, interested in anything to do with sports.
