George W. Hunter

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(Chinese name: 胡进洁) (31 July 1861 – 20 December 1946) was a Scottish

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Christian missionary of the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...

who worked in China and

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turk ...

Early life

Hunter was born in

Kincardineshire Kincardineshire, also known as the Mearns (from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "the Stewartry"), is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and ...

, and spent his childhood on

Deeside Deeside ( cy, Glannau Dyfrdwy) is the name given to a predominantly industrial conurbation of towns and villages in Flintshire and Cheshire on the Wales–England border lying near the canalised stretch of the River Dee that flows from nei ...

. Hunter's mother died when he was still very small. When he was young he was in love with a woman named Jessie, but she died young (at age 22), and was buried at

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. Hunter wanted to serve God in missions. The first time he applied for service abroad, he was refused, and focused his attention on serving God at home in places like the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

. The second time he applied with the China Inland Mission he was finally accepted.

China

Hunter arrived in China 1889. After studying the Chinese language for two years at Anking, he was sent to the Gansu mission station. Although he liked the prayer and Bible study times with his fellow missionaries, rules and regulations and meal times were irksome to him, and he took long itinerations, establishing temporary centres at Hochow, Sining, Ningxia, and Liangchow. He learned a lot during this time about communicating Christian teaching to Muslims and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

ans. When the Boxer Rebellion broke out the governor of Gansu helped his missionaries to get safely out of China, and then Hunter took his one and only visit back to Scotland. Here he visited the grave of Jessie, and put a granite heart over it, as her family would not allow him to erect a tombstone. He had made a resolution during language school not to marry, so that he could be more fully devoted to God. He departed for China a second time on 24 February 1902 on the ''S.S. König Albert'' and on arriving in China was reappointed to

Lanchow Lanzhou (, ; ) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. Hi ...

. Again he made many long journeys in the countryside.

Xinjiang and Gansu

On 27 March 1906 he moved to Urumqi (Tihwafu),

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

. The next forty years he spent mostly travelling. He travelled all throughout Xinjiang, and even went as far as Khovd. During his travels he preached in Kazakh, Uyghur, Manchu, Mongolian, Nogai,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, and Chinese, and distributed gospel literature in those languages. He would also visit and encourage a 200 family settlement of White Russians who had settled in Gulja. George W. Hunter noted that while Tungan Muslims (

Chinese Muslims Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1.6-2 percent of the total population (21,667,000- 28,210,795) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most nume ...

) would almost never prostitute their daughters, Turki Muslims ( Uyghurs) would prostitute their daughters, which was why Turki prostitutes were common around the country. Under

Sheng Shicai Sheng Shicai (; 3 December 189513 July 1970) was a Chinese warlord who ruled Xinjiang from 1933 to 1944. Sheng's rise to power started with a coup d'état in 1933 when he was appointed the ''duban'' or Military Governor of Xinjiang. His rule o ...

's regime, he was arrested under false charges, and locked up in a Soviet prison cell in Ürümqi for thirteen months and subjected to various

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

s. Finally he was released, and escorted out of the city. He then went to Lanchow, Gansu, and later on farther west to Kanchow, hoping that when Xinjiang opened up again, he would be ready to go back. He died in Zhangye (then Kanchow), Gansu, on 20 December 1946.

Translations

Hunter translated Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Genesis into Kazakh. He also translated ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christianity, Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a prog ...

'', Mark, Acts, 1 Samuel, and twenty-five chapters of Genesis into Uyghur, and Mark into

Nogai language Nogai (; ''Ногай тили, Nogay tili, Ногайша, Nogayşa'') also known as Noğay, Noghay, Nogay, or Nogai Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken in Southeastern European Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and in T ...

. He also published a small book of collected Qazaq, Tatar, Uzbek, Uyghur, Azerbaijani, Kirghiz, Turkish and Astrakhan Turkic literature with English translations by himself. He also translated into English a section from "Narratives of the Prophets" and published it side by side with the original Uighur.

References

Bibliography

* Mildred Cable and Francesca French, ''George Hunter: Apostle of Turkestan'' (1948) * B. V. Henry, ''Fakkelbæreren til de ukjente: pionermisjonæren George Hunter i Sentral-Asia'',

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

: Lunde (2001) *Hunter, George W., ''Examples of the Various Turki Dialects: Turki text with English translation'', Tihwafu: