Gladys Aylward

Gladys May Aylward
Born	(1902-02-24)24 February 1902 Edmonton, London
Died	3 January 1970(1970-01-03) (aged 67) Taiwan

Gladys May Aylward (Chinese name: 艾偉德, pinyin: ài wěi dé) (24 February 1902 – 3 January 1970) was the evangelical Christian missionary to China whose story was told in the book The Small Woman by Alan Burgess, published in 1957. In 1958, the story was made into the Hollywood film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman.

Early life

Aylward was born of a working-class family in Edmonton, London in 1902. Her parents were Thomas John Aylward and Rodina Florence Aylward (nee Whiskin). Her siblings were Laurence, and Violet. Although she became a domestic worker (housemaid) at an early age, she always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary, and studied with great determination in order to be fitted for the role, only to be turned down because her academic background was inadequate and the China Inland Mission to which she applied was convinced that it was not possible to learn the language at her age.

Her determination was such that, in 1932, she spent her life savings on a passage to Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China. The perilous trip took her across Siberia.

Work in China

On her arrival in Yuncheng, Aylward worked with an older missionary, Jeannie Lawson, to found The Inn of the Eight Happinesses. For a time she served as an assistant to the Chinese government as a "foot inspector" by touring the countryside to enforce the new law against footbinding young Chinese girls. She met with much success in a field that had produced much resistance, including sometimes violence against the inspectors.

Aylward became a Chinese citizen in 1936 and was a revered figure among the people, taking in orphans and adopting several herself, intervening in a volatile prison riot and advocating prison reform, risking her life many times to help those in need. In 1938, the region was invaded by Japanese forces, and Aylward led over 100 orphans to safety over the mountains, despite being wounded herself. She never married.

She returned to England in 1948. After 10 years in England she sought to return to China, but was denied re-entry by the Communist government and instead settled in Taiwan in 1958. There she founded the Gladys Aylward Orphanage, where she worked until her death in 1970.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

The major motion picture based on her life, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, was released in 1958. It drew from the book The Small Woman by Alan Burgess. Although she found herself a figure of international interest thanks to the popularity of the movie and television and media interviews, Aylward was mortified by her depiction in the film and the many liberties it took. The tall, Swedish Ingrid Bergman was inconsistent with Aylward's small stature, dark hair and cockney accent. The struggles of Aylward and her family to effect her initial trip to China were skipped over in favor of a plot device of an employer "condescending to write to 'his old friend' Jeannie Lawson," and Aylward's dangerous, complicated travels across Russia and China were reduced to "a few rude soldiers," after which "Hollywood's train delivered her neatly to Tsientsin." Many characters and places' names were changed, even when their names had significant meanings, such as those of her adopted children and of her inn, named for the Chinese belief in the number 8 as an auspicious number. Colonel Linnan was portrayed as half-European, a change which she found insulting to his Chinese lineage, and she felt her reputation damaged by the Hollywood-embellished love scenes in the film; not only had she never kissed any man, but also the film's ending portrayed her character abandoning the orphans in order to join the colonel elsewhere even though in reality she did not retire from working with orphans until she was sixty years old.

Death and legacy

Aylward died on 3 January 1970 just short of her 68th birthday, and is buried in a small cemetery on the campus of Christ's College in Guandu, New Taipei, Taiwan. She was known to the Chinese as 艾偉德 (Ài Wěi Dé- a Chinese approximation to 'Aylward' - meaning 'Virtuous One').

Shortly after her death, an Edmonton secondary school formerly known as Weir Hall was renamed Gladys Aylward School in her honor.

Numerous books, short stories and movies have been created about the life and work of Gladys Aylward (listed below).

See also

• Francis Younghusband

References

*Hero Tales by: Dave & Neta Jackson

*Those Are My People by: Mildred T. Howard

Archives

• The Archive of Gladys Aylward is held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/

Bibliography

• Aylward, Gladys, MS 291571: Letters and relics of Gladys Aylward, missionary to China, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London
• Aylward, Gladys (1980), Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman, ISBN 978-0-8024-2986-5
• Burgess, A (1957), The Small Woman (New Impression ed.), Pan Books, ISBN 0-330-10196-X
• Hunter, C (1971), Gladys Aylward: Her Personal Story, Coverdale House Publishers, ISBN 0-902088-25-4
• Latham, R. O. (1952), Gladys Aylward, One of the Undefeated: The Story of Gladys Aylward, Edinburgh House Press (ASIN B001DK2WV6)
• Thompson, P (1971), London Sparrow: The Story of Gladys Aylward, Word Books, ISBN 0-85009-026-1
• Benge, Janet and Geoff (1998), Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime, ISBN 978-1-57658-019-6
• Purves, Carol (2005), Chinese Whispers: The Gladys Aylward Story, ISBN 978-1-903087-57-2
• Jackson, Dave and Neta (1994), Flight of the Fugitives: Gladys Aylward, ISBN 978-1-55661-466-8

Videography

• The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) - feature film
• Gladys Aylward, the Small Woman with a Great God (2008) - Documentary
• Torchlighters: The Gladys Aylward Story (2008) - animated DVD for children ages 8–12.

External links

• Biography of Gladys Aylward
• An anecdote on how the book came to be written
• Gladys Aylward Painting