West China Union University

The West China Union University (Chinese: 華西協合大學), also called West China University or Huaxi University, was a private university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It was the product of the collective efforts of four Protestant, denominational, missionary boards — American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (American Baptist Churches USA), American Methodist Episcopal Mission (Methodist Episcopal Church), Friends' Foreign Mission Association (British Quakers) and Canadian Methodist Mission (Methodist Church of Canada)^[1]— and eventually became a division of the West China Educational Union, which was created in 1906. The Church Missionary Society (Church of England) became a partner in the university in 1918.^[2][3]

Once established, the university approached the difficult tasks of educating and converting the people of Sichuan province—an area in size equal to the United Kingdom, France, and Germany combined—as it was the only institution with a Christian purpose in the region. The faculty and administration were attempting to educate and influence the beliefs of a population in excess of 150 million people.^[4] The university grew rapidly in its first decade and remained a key player in tertiary education in Sichuan throughout the Republican Era.^[5]