McClure: The China Years

by Munroe Scott

Not only follows the adventures of a unique man but traces them against the fascinating and often awesome background of a changing China.

409 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Marni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert McClure was born in Portland, OR in 1900 just after his mother arrived in the US from China with her other two children in tow. He spent most of the next 47 years in China - excluding a period of time when his physician father went back to Ontario for more training and then when Bob went to university to get his medical degree. He was a remarkably talented man who had a thirst for knowledge and could learn almost anything he put his mind and hands to. He worked for the United Church of Canada as a physician for many years at a time when many denominations had missions in China and co-operation between them was unheard of. Bob learned to work with others during local wars and famine. After an especially fascinating two months of late evening talks with Karl Ludvig Reichelt who was the leading Christian authority on Buddhism it was said of McClure that 'never again would he listen to Christian jargon with an uncritical ear; never again would he assume that men of other faiths were automatically antagonistic to his; never again could he rest easy with the idea that the 'essence' of Christianity depended upon Western 'culture'.