Fr Louis Gendron (CHN), in his Letter to the Province last December 3, wrote, “You may remember that last year I was looking for a good concise history of the Society in China. Fr. Freddie Deignan introduced me to a booklet of 100 pages written by Fr. Thomas Ryan and published in Hong Kong in 1964. Fr. Ryan was not a sinologist, but he was a great communicator.
I read the book with much interest. Later I found that it had been translated and published in Chinese (Taiwan) and Spanish (Spain) in the mid Sixties. After consulting with some people, I decided to re-publish the book in the same three languages, but in a slightly augmented edition covering what happened in the last 40 years, especially in Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and reconnecting with the new China. I approached Fr. Ray Parent at the Kuangchi Cultural Group (the former Kuangchi Press), who accepted to publish the book, in time for the General Congregation, so that we could give a copy to all the participants of the Congregation. Several Jesuits helped in providing new data, especially Frs. Harold Naylor, Mark Fang and Fernando Mateos. The new edition has just come out off press, on the 50th anniversary of Kuangchi Cultural Group on December 1st. It is a beautiful book, with more than 120 illustrations, full colors and attractive format. Fr. Parent’s staff told me that he spent three weeks working from morning to late night finding and choosing the pictures, maps and drawings for the book. Hopefully Jesuits in China will help many Jesuits at the Congregation and many other people have a basic understanding of the China mission.”