The Publishing Work in China by H. M. Blunden

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1916

The Publishing Work in China

By H. M. Blunden

H. M. BLUNDEN

THE publishing work has pioneered the way for the message in nearly all the mission fields of the world. Ever since the discovery of the art of printing, literature has been an indispensable factor in the spread of the gospel, because God intended that through this means a far-reaching power should attend the work of the missionary of truth. Through the printed page the influence of Christianity and the third angel's message can penetrate regions where the name of Christ has never been heard, and where the preacher cannot yet enter.

Thus it has been in China. About eight years ago, Dr. H. W. Miller in a very small way began to print the truth in old Honan, said to be the original territory of the Chinese people. Just as these people have spread to far-distant and widely separated regions, so it was destined that the glorious light of truth contained in our literature should follow them from this small beginning made in Honan, the cradle of the Chinese race.

Soon after the work was begun, Shanghai was made the headquarters of the work in China, and the publishing plant was removed to that great center. Our present commodious quarters were erected about three years ago. Even at this early stage in our development, the building is proving all too small for our rapidly growing work, and our equipment is wholly inadequate.

The chief work of our publishing house is to issue the monthly magazine, Signs of the Times. This is an attractive journal issued in the two great languages of China. To demonstrate the possibility of development with our monthly paper, I need only say that there are considerably more than 400,000,000 people with whom to work. Half our provinces are yet unentered, and the remainder of them have much territory which has never yet seen the colporteur.

At the present time our magazine has an average issue of 60,000 and upwards. At one time it ran as high as 100,000 in one month. It always has a good cover design, and so sells readily.

In addition to this, we print many of our tracts and books, including such standard works as “Daniel and the Revelation,” “Christ Our Saviour,” and “Bible Readings.” In fact, our various books and tracts make up quite a large catalogue when all are listed.

Many methods of circulation have been tried. For a long time the papers were given to the colporteur gratis, and he sold them for ten cash each, or one third of a cent gold. In this way he was expected to earn his living. It seemed to some that the colporteur could not make ends meet on this plan, and so a subsidy of three or four dollars Mexican was added. Other methods also have been experimented with, but there have always been men in the field who stood firmly for a commission policy in distributing our literature.

At the Shanghai general meeting held in May, last year, thorough consideration was given to the question of our literature work, and action was taken, which, if thoroughly carried out, will place our publishing work on a self-supporting basis, or at least almost so. The prices then set for our paper were two cents Mexican for a single copy, and fifty cents for an annual subscription, the colporteur returning to the publishing house fifty per cent of all his business. Two arguments were quite earnestly urged against this proposition. One was that the difference between the price for twelve single copies and the annual subscription was so great that the colporteur would be unable to secure subscriptions. The other was that in consequence of this the colporteur could not earn a living selling single copies, getting only one cent commission on each sale.

PLOWING, HARROWING, AND PLANTING AT SOLUSI MISSION

We believed that this plan would prove successful if, in institutes, we trained our colporteurs to make the taking of subscriptions their first business, and to sell single copies as an auxiliary business. This meant that if a man took two subscriptions a day, he would earn his living, as fifty cents a day is a good wage here.

We are more than pleased with the remarkable success which has attended the new plan. During the first month after this plan was put into operation, we received nearly 4,000 subscriptions, or almost as many as were taken during 1914. In the first five months of the plan our subscription list has grown so rapidly that it has more than doubled, being now about 28,000, and subscriptions are still coming in at the rate of thousands a month. It is beginning to be a problem at the Signs office how to deal with so great a mailing list with practically no facilities for such work; and it must be remembered that a Chinese mailing list, where there is no alphabetical arrangement, is a vastly different proposition from a mailing list at home.

Many of our colporteurs during the last few months have made a marked improvement in dress and appearance, resulting from increased earnings. One young man who went out from our Shanghai institute last July, has taken nearly 1,000 subscriptions in five months, thus earning about thirty-five dollars (Mexican) a month, or three times the salary of an evangelist. Others have done extremely well, although this case is an exception. But it is true that wherever faithful effort has been put forth under this new plan, the colporteur has done well, added materially to his income, and returned to the mission almost sufficient to cover the cost of producing the literature.

At the institute which I am now conducting, the men who attended the meeting of six months ago are in attendance, and without dissent they are wholehearted in their praise of our new plan. Some who were most strongly opposed to it are loudest in their praises.

At our general meeting, plans were also laid for the production of small subscription books, to suit the conditions of this field. Within three months we had the manuscript in hand for a small medical book, called “Health and Longevity,” by Dr. A. C. Selmon, who has been in China eleven years, and can write from a comparatively broad knowledge of Chinese conditions. This little book of about one hundred and fifty pages, will have a fine manikin, and will sell at from one to two dollars Mexican. We hope to produce this at a price which will give a good return to the publishing house. Plans are also on foot for another book of about three hundred and fifty pages, to follow this one. This will be after the style of “Heralds of the Morning.”

Altogether, we have everything to encourage us. We have a wonderful field to develop; the cooperation of our evangelistic brethren; several bookmen to lead out in the work, with others soon to enter the field; a growing Chinese church from which to recruit our colporteurs, and a great many applicants from whom to recruit. Traveling facilities and machinery for distributing are rapidly increasing, which is greatly to our advantage. We also have an ever-increasing

confidence in the efficacy of our literature as a soul-saving factor, and a growing determination to use all the facilities which God has given us for its circulation.

The future lies before us with its tremendous possibilities, and we crave your prayers that this department may become a mighty factor in China for the finishing of the work of the third angel's message.