Two young Virginians, Hugh White and Augusta Graves, traveled to China in the 1890s as Presbyterian missionaries. They met and married there, working to bring help and hope to a people locked in poverty in remote mission locations. They spent 47 years of their adult lives in China—facing war, disease, and hostility, while teaching, raising a family, and experiencing joy and tragedy amid beauty and turmoil.

Their youngest son, Hugh White Jr., sailed “home” to China in 1937 only to find the port of Shanghai under attack by the Japanese on the very day he landed. After making his way through war-torn Shanghai to his parents, stranded in the mountain community of Kuling, he joined the faculty of Central China College (Huachung University) in Wuhan. Under the pressure of Japanese bombing  the school moved westward, though different cities, ending up in west China, near Tibet. This journey, in advance of the Japanese armed forces, and then back to Kuling, often under life-threatening wartime conditions, is told in his first person account.

The author, Hugh White Jr.’s son, tells their story. It is sometimes charming and, at other times, chilling. Told through letters, historical images, and personal accounts, it brings to life a distant time and place and provides an insight into historical events as seen from an intensely personal viewpoint. 

“A remarkable insight to a period of Chinese history that many are totally unfamiliar with. The family letters are an incredible treasure.  Readers will feel like they got to know the writers personally.”—Brian Suen, member, Chinese Historical Society of America.