Gladys Aylward
| Gladys May Aylward | |
|---|---|
Missionary to China
|
|
| Born |
24 February 1902 Edmonton, London |
| Died | 3 January 1970 (aged 67) Taiwan |
| Resting place | New Taipei, Taiwan |
| Residence | Taiwan |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | 艾偉德 |
| Citizenship | Chinese |
| Education | Silver Street School, Edmonton, London |
| Occupation | Christian missionary |
| Organization | Gladys Aylward Orphanage |
| Known for | Movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness based on her life |
| Home town | London |
Gladys May Aylward (24 February 1902 – 3 January 1970) was a British evangelical Christian missionary to China, whose story was told in the book The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess, published in 1957, and made into the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman, in 1958. The movie was produced by Twentieth Century Fox, and filmed entirely in North Wales and England.
Aylward was born to a working-class family in Edmonton, North London, in 1902. Her parents were Thomas John Aylward and Rosina Florence Aylward (née Whiskin). Her siblings were Laurence and Violet. She worked as a domestic worker (housemaid) at an early age but always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary and studied with great determination to be fitted for the role, only to be turned down because her academic background was inadequate, and the China Inland Mission to which she applied was convinced that it was not possible to learn the language at her age.
In 1932, having worked for Sir Francis Younghusband, she spent her life savings on a train passage to Yangcheng, Shanxi Province, China. The perilous trip took her across Siberia with the Trans-Siberian Railway. She was detained by the Russians, but managed to evade them with local help and took a lift from a Japanese ship. She travelled across Japan with the help of the British Consul and took another ship to China.
On her arrival in Yangcheng, Aylward worked with an older missionary, Jeannie Lawson, to found The Inn of the Eight Happinesses (八福客栈 bāfú kèzhàn in Chinese), the name based on the eight virtues: Love, Virtue, Gentleness, Tolerance, Loyalty, Truth, Beauty, and Devotion. There, she and Mrs. Lawson not only provided hospitality for travellers, but would also share stories about a man named Jesus, in hopes of sharing the Gospel. For a time she served as an assistant to the Chinese government as a "foot inspector" by touring the countryside to enforce the new law against footbinding young Chinese girls. She met with much success in a field that had produced much resistance, including sometimes violence against the inspectors.
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Wikipedia