2. MARCO TEÓRICO: VARIABLE ARRENDAMIENTO
2.5 Norma internacional IFRS 16 “Arrendamiento”
2.5.4 Implicaciones y retos en las empresas
Timothy Richard, according to available documents, was the first to propose a Christian magazine for Chinese women. Associated with the Baptist Missionary Society, Richard first came to China in 1870 and worked in Zhifu 芝罘 (formerly known as Chefoo, present-day Yantai 烟台 in Shandong 山東
Province) for several years during which time the famines in the 1880s greatly influenced his evangelical approach. Being an active administrator in famine relief, Richard believed “that only Western scientific expertise could avert similar disasters and that the right approach in China was to target the educated and religious elite with a message that yoked Christianity to the attractions of Western civilisation.”101 In the following years, Richard had visited high officials such as Zuo Zongtang
左宗棠 (1812–1885), Zhang Zhidong 張之洞 (1837–1909), and Li Hongzhang 李鸿章 (1823–1901). He was also known to reform-minded literati such as Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904, the Minister
100 Ibid., 124.
101 Brian Stanley, “Richard, Timothy,” in Gerald H. Anderson (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions
(New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 567–8. For a detailed account of Timothy Richard, see Eunice V. Johnson, Timothy Richard’s Vision: Education and Reform in China, 1880–1910 (Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2015).
37 of Revenue), Kang Youwei, and Liang Qichao. In 1896, Weng asked Richard to write a brief proposal for the Wuxu Reform and later showed his scheme to the Guangxu Emperor which was approved. Richard advocated “educational reform, economic reform, internal and international peace, and spiritual regeneration” as key objectives of his agenda.102
Richard also focused on the role of women in Chinese society. He had been involved in supporting Nü xue hui during the 1897–1898 campaign for women’s education in Shanghai. In her work on Nü xue bao, Dusica Ristivojevic notes the significant role Richard played supporting the society, the school, and the journal. His wife, Mary Richard, was also involved in the establishment and operation of Nü xue tang.103
Aside from promoting women’s work in the non-Christian community, Richard also concentrated on his evangelical work among Chinese women. During the mid-1890s, a few years after being appointed the General Secretary of the Christian Literature Society in Shanghai,104 Richard believed the time was ripe for a Christian women’s magazine. He had met Laura White at a conference of the Christian Endeavour Society (CES) in Shanghai around 1894 and invited Laura White to work with him on a project of Christian literature for women.105 At the first convention of the CES, White held the position of Correspondent Secretary while Richard was on its Publication Committee. White also attended the Second Annual Christian Endeavour Convention in Shanghai from 22 to 24 June the following year, where she addressed the meeting on the doctrines of charity and unity.106 Despite her dispute with Richard at one of the conferences, Richard invited White to his home for dinner and asked her to work
102 William E. Soothill, Timothy Richard of China: Seer, Statesman, Missionary & the Most Disinterested Adviser
the Chinese ever Had (London: Seeley, Service & Co. Limited, 1924), 220–1.
103 Ristivojevic, Gender and Internationalization in China, 64, 118.
104 For the death of Rev. Dr. A. G. Williamson, see The Third Annual Report of the CLS (Shanghai: CLS, 1890), 7.
For the appointment of Timothy Richard, see The Fourth Annual Report of the CLS, 1891 (Shanghai: CLS, 1891), 7. For the resignation of Timothy Richard, see The Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the CLS, 1915 (Shanghai: CLS, 1915), 6.
105 As an interdenominational organisation, the CES’s work in China was an extension of the original movement
in Williston, Maine, U.S.A., in 1881. The aim of the organisation was to promote an earnest Christian life among its members. For principles of the CES, see Rev. W. P. Bentley, “The Christian Endeavor Society,” The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal (June 1894): 296–8.
38 on women’s literature. Although White declined Richard’s invitation due to the demands of her primary evangelical work in female education, Richard, according to White, “kept up his interest in me until he asked the Methodist Church if they would lend me to the Christian Literature Society for literary work for one year.”107
Despite declining Richard’s invitation, White maintained her friendship with him and started to work partially on women’s literature before becoming the editor of Nü duo in 1912. After reading the work of Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) “Walk in the light while there is light,” published in 1891, she was inspired with an idea to place the story in a Chinese context. As the original argument was, in her words, “against imperialism, militarism, and Roman and Greek philosophies,” White thought it “could easily be changed into appeals for Christianity against Buddhism and Confucianism.” She took her finished book to “her great and wise friend Dr Timothy Richard” for his advice.108 Deeply confused about the nature of her work, White asked him what she should call the book, as it was neither a translation nor an adaptation. The following is an excerpt from their conversation:
White: “What shall I call the book?”
Richard: “My dear child, you have written an original story.” White: “But there is hardly an original thought in it.”
Richard: “I would not expect it. Only two or three new thoughts are born in a century.”109 Richard’s encouraging words further assured White of the value of her work. The book, which later turned out to be a success, was published in a serialised form under the title of “Wu geng zhong” 五 更鍾 (“Five Calls”110) in Tong wen bao通問報 (The Chinese Christian Intelligencer), a Christian weekly
107The Thirty-third Annual Report of the CLS for China, 1920, 44.
108 Laura M. White, “Women and Children Last: The Story for Christian Literature for the Chinese,” The Missionary
Review of the World (December 1929): 904.
109 Ibid.
110 Although the English title for the monograph of Wu geng zhong was recorded as “Five Calls,” the Chinese
39 periodical established in 1902 and published in Shanghai by the Presbyterian Missions in China. It announced in the 249th issue in April 1907 that the monograph would be published the following month following requests from its readers.111 Eventually the book went through twenty printings. Its success, illustrating the power of the print media, opened White’s mind to the possibility of expanding the circulation of Christian ideals beyond its hitherto narrow role of confining these to teaching in mission schools. Buoyed with the popularity of her book, White revealed that she now had the courage to “say ‘Yes’’’ when asked subsequently by the Christian Literature Society to edit a magazine for women and girls.”112
Another force that facilitated a change in White’s evangelical vision was the emergence of journalism as a mechanism for facilitating new ideas of reform among Chinese women at the turn of the twentieth century. Late Qing female writers engaged in social, economic, and cultural issues of the day through printed works.113 Writings on gender often intermingled with home reform, some of which prioritised women’s rights as part of family revolution. Emphasis was placed on free marriage choice as the fundamental basis of gender equality or as a way of strengthening a nation’s civilisation.114 Benefiting from a modern Western education, a group of progressive feminist women were no longer content with being confined to household affairs. Some became involved in military organisations while others found their passion in the political arena. Women advocating a revolution in the home and family associated individual freedom with political revolution. In some cases, familial revolution was considered as a fundamental step on the road to political revolution.115
111 Song Lihua 宋莉华, “Meiyimeihui chuanjiaoshi liangleyue de xiaoshuo chuangzuo yu fanyi” 美以美会传教士
亮乐月的小说创作与翻译 (The Literature Work of the American Methodist Missionary Laura White), Shanghai shifan daxue xuebao上海师范大学学报（哲学社会科学版） (May 2012): 95.
112 White, “Women and Children Last,” 904.
113 Qian, “The Mother Nüxue bao versus the Daughter Nüxue bao,” 257–91.
114 Fengchengrongjun nüshi鳳城蓉君女史, “Hunyin ziyoulun” 婚姻自由論(Discussion on the Free Marriage
Choice), Qing yi bao清議報(19 April 1901); Wang Yuzhen 汪毓眞, “Lun hunyin ziyou de guanxi” 論婚姻自由的 關系 (Discussion on the Importance of the Free Marriage Choice), Nüzi shijie (10 September 1904).
40 White recognised the importance of the role of print media, through which she expected Christian ideals would play a leading role in changing the notion of gender. A private letter written in the early 1900s indicates such a change in White’s evangelical approach when she was the head of a Union College in Nanjing. In the letter, she mentioned that she was preparing a woman’s magazine and asked the recipient to send her articles, books, and old magazines about women, children, domestic science, hygiene, kindergarten songs, and plays. She said:
I think there is a turn of ways just now in woman’s work in China. The time has come when an appeal is not only to be made to the individual woman, but when we must furnish new ideals, new customs, new paths of service for a whole nation of women who have rejected the old ways, who demand freedom, who wish to enter every path that men tread.116
With the popularity of her work “Wu geng zhong” and the growing recognition of the importance of literature among the Protestant missionary community,117 White now concentrated on evangelical literature. From 1912, she worked in Nanjing on the monthly magazine Nü duo as a part-time editor for the Christian Literature Society in Shanghai.118 Probably due to the good sales of the magazine,119 or her increasing faith in evangelical literature, or both, White left Nanjing in 1914 and became an associate worker for the Society in 1915.120 The following section shifts to the making of Nü duo.
116 Helen Barrett Montgomery, How to Use a Handbook to Accompany China’s New Day (West Medford, Mass.:
the Central Committee on the United Study of Missions, 19--?), 51–2.
117 Many missionaries at the time also saw the growing importance of literature. Appealing for financial support
and more workers for Christian literature was one agenda point at the China Centenary Missionary Conference in Shanghai in 1907. See China Centenary Missionary Conference in Shanghai in 1907 (Shanghai: Centenary Conference Committee, 1907), 589–603.
118 According to the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the CLS, White joined the Society in 1912. Her name came
under the column of editorial and distributing staff. From 1912 to 1915, she worked as a part-time staff member.
119 The circulation of Nü duo surpassed two major periodicals of the CLS—Da tong bao大同報founded in 1904
and Zhongxi jiaohui bao中西教會報 founded in 1891.The latter changed its title to Jiaohui gongbao教會公報 in 1912. The annual copies of Nü duo for 1916 was 15,000, while Da tong bao was 8,400 and Jiaohui gongbao was 9,600. For more details on circulation, see 55–6.
120 According to the official minutes of the 1913 China Central Conference, White was the principal of a girls’
boarding school. According to the twenty-eighth annual report of the CLS, White went on furlough and returned to her editing work in 1915. The certificate of registration of American citizenship in 1915 notes that White left the United States on 23 July 1915 and arrived in Shanghai on 1 September 1915. Her address was McTyeire
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