The Living Goddess of Mercy at the Rape of Nanking
Minnie Vautrin and the Ginling Refugee Camp in World War II (1937-1938)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3434233 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sheng-Ping Guo, Guo Sheng-ping (University of Toronto, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages | 150 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel7120150 |
| OpenAlex | W2566024880 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 3 |
During the infamous Nanking Atrocity, some Western businesspersons and missionaries established the Nanking Safety Zone to protect about 250,000 refugees. When the Japanese army was pressing on Nanking, Minnie Vautrin, an educational missionary from the United Christian Missionary Society, took charge of the Ginling College campus. As one of the 25 refugee camps, Ginling provided shelter to about 10,000 women and children in late December 1937-the hardest time during World War II in China. With her neutral identity of American nationality, Vautrin seriously struggled with Japanese soldiers when they were seizing Chinese women for rape from the campus; thus, she helped many women avoid the possible fate of sexual violence and slaughter. The Chinese people promoted her as a "Goddess of Mercy", in the Chinese language a "Living Buddha" (Huo pu sa) or "Guanyin Buddha" (Guan Yin pu sa). The Chinese central government awarded her the Order of Jade (Cai Yu xun zhang). Drawing from Vautrin's diaries and other original materials, this paper narrates this Christian female missionary's moving story in humanism, evangelism, and internationalism. Her devotion to the Chinese refugee women and children made her an eyewitness to the Nanking Massacre, a rehabilitator of refugee sufferings, and a mental and bodily victim of disastrous war
Ancient history · Archaeology · Buddhism · China · Evangelism · Gautama Buddha · Immigration · Nationality · Political science · Refugee · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Theology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |