A Genealogy of Breakthroughs

Wong Tsing-yi (1869–1903) was a third-generation Christian woman from a South China family. Focusing on her life story, this study aims to show how her family’s connection and interactions with western missionaries generated new resources for her to reimagine family relations, learning, and social and gender roles, thereby transgressing prevalent social norms. Using the Chronicles of Wong’s family and missionary writings, this study demonstrates how interactions and exchanges with missionaries in practice far transcended the binary view of the hegemonic transmitter and passive receptor. Through a sustained process of exchanges, the family and missionaries engendered a new culture of mutual learning that gave rise to a genealogy of breakthroughs.