Chinese pioneers of the Swedish Free Mission: Eugene Sieux and John Lee
Eugene Sieux (Yu Chi Siu) and John (Yuen) Lee were early pioneers of the Swedish Free Mission to South China. While working in Chicago in the 1880s, they met Hans Jensen von Qualen who, being proficient in English, served as their language tutor. The three men soon became friends. While von Qualen is commonly known as the first foreign missionary of the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission, commissioned to China in 1887, he actually followed Eugene Sieux, who had returned to his homeland three months earlier. John Lee soon followed them both. The retelling of this story comes with renewed interest not merely because of today’s growing number of Chinese Evangelical Free Churches in North America, but because of the challenge of traditional assumptions of agency and passivity, and past historiography that focused mainly on Scandinavian-American missionaries.
Hans Jensen von Qualen, originally from Denmark, arrived in America in 1874 and took up residence in New York City. He converted to faith a few years later and joined the Swedish Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in New York City, where J. G. Princell was pastor. Princell was a proponent of the atonement views of P.P. Waldenström, and when debate arose in the church over these views, Princell, von Qualen and others left in 1879 to organize the Swedish Bethesda Mission in New York, later known as Bethesda Covenant Church.
Eugene Sieux
John Lee
Von Qualen attended Ansgar College in Knoxville, Illinois, where Princell had gone to serve as headmaster. Von Qualen eventually relocated to Chicago where he joined the Oak Street Free Mission, again following Princell, who was serving there as pastor and as assistant editor of Chicago-Bladet, the periodical of the Swedish Free Mission Friends. Von Qualen continued his studies in the Swedish department at Chicago Theological Seminary under Fridolf Risberg, and engaged in missionary activity locally among Chinese residents, working with such people as Eugene Sieux, John Lee, Soo Chong and Jim Poy.
Von Qualen saw a number of his Chinese students experience conversion to faith. Together they took part in regular prayer and Bible reading sessions. Von Qualen said: “We found several [Chinese] who wished to learn about the Bible and the God of the Bible, especially when we offered freely to teach them English in order that they might be able to read the Bible.”
A close friendship developed between von Qualen, Sieux and Lee. It was through them in particular that von Qualen was asked time and again to come to China to proclaim the gospel to the Chinese people. In 1887, Chicago-Bladet reported:
“It was just like the Macedonian man, who Paul saw in a vision one night (Acts 16:9), [but for von Qualen] saying: ‘Come over to China and help us!’ With ever increasing promptings from God, Brother von Qualen has not been able to do anything other than respond to the appeals from these newborn children of God to go to these people, certain that the Lord was calling him to go and leading him to take this step.”
Thus the foreign mission of the Swedish Free Mission Friends was launched from appeals made by these Chinese men. As opportunity presented itself, von Qualen, Sieux and Lee made their plans known to friends and members of the Oak Street Free Mission, known today as First Evangelical Free Church of Chicago.
Although von Qualen arrived in Canton on December 29, 1887, he was not the first of them to arrive. As the history of the South China Free Mission states, Eugene Sieux had returned to Canton “three months before von Qualen.” In October, 1888, three more workers came: two Swedish-Americans and John Lee. While Sieux had attended a missionary school in Chicago conducted by Presbyterians, he took up studies again at a Christian school in Canton.
Soon, von Qualen and others renovated a store for a chapel on Honom Island, with a large room on the ground floor that seated 150, and the second floor for living quarters where they and missionary Anders Stenwall lived. The American Consul promised police protection to prevent any disturbances to the work of the “Scandinavian Mission.” As the history states, “Since Lee and Sieux did not speak the local dialect, von Qualen engaged Canton’s best preacher for a few Sundays.” Clearly, both Lee and Sieux were functioning as missionaries, and sources report that they received support from the Swedish Free Mission. In May of 1889, the chapel was enlarged to accommodate 500 people.
When his father died, Lee – being the eldest son – returned to his home to arrange for the funeral. Lee’s name was inscribed on the urn in which his father’s remains were placed, followed by: “A believer in Jesus.” His brothers persecuted him severely for this, so much so that he had to flee to Singapore. In December of 1889, however, he learned that his mother was seeking Christ and had “gone home to burn all the idols.” Five years later, Lee’s whole family came to faith, and his brother Ng Tsz Kwan became equally active in the South China Mission.
The initial work of the Mission was difficult because of opposition to the Christian message. Sieux described this work as being like “clearing the field of rocks and thorns.” However, in spite of opposition, the workers, both foreign and national, labored together for work of the gospel.
In 1896, von Qualen made a trip to Scandinavia to visit relatives and to gather support for new workers. Early in November he returned to Chicago, where he joined his co-worker, Sieux. Since von Qualen had planned for the development of the Mission, he sent a cable to Sieux requesting that he come to Chicago and assist him in fundraising, particularly to promote the vision of a large boat for the Mission – a floating chapel – by which to reach the masses of people living on and along the Pearl River.
Sieux traveled to Chicago and he was ordained at a meeting at the Oak Street Free Mission. (It is interesting to note that Sieux was ordained by Princell, the most vocal Swedish-American proponent of Waldenström’s writings, of which Princell had personally translated three books: The Lord Is Right, The Reconciliation, and The Blood of Jesus.)
After a farewell service, Sieux, von Qualen and two new Swedish-American missionaries – Anna Ericsson and H. Burkwall – departed for Vancouver with plans to arrive in Canton in early December of 1896.
With funding from the Swedish Free Mission, the chapel boat was launched in 1897 and given the name Morning Star. Moreover, Sieux opened a new chapel in Sam Shiu. The following year, he also worked with Anna Ericsson on the Morning Star, along with Lee’s younger brother, Ng Tsz Kwan, the steersman. On the return journey after a successful outreach, the boat was stoned. Sieux was seriously injured and four of his fellow workers were imprisoned. The history reports: “Ng and Sieux had been bound with chains because they preached the Gospel from the boat.” Later during the Boxer Rebellion, when the foreign missionaries fled for protection, Lee and Sieux “were faithful servants of the Lord, for in spite of pending danger, they remained, watching the Mission property and conducting meetings for the native believers.”
So what is the legacy of Lee and Sieux? Rev. John Lee is described as a pioneer in the Free Church in Canton. He served in the South China Mission faithfully for 44 years, longer than any of the foreign missionaries.
In 1905, Rev. Eugene Sieux, whose wife had died earlier, resigned from his work with the Mission and accepted a call to the pastorate of a Chinese church in America. He came first to Honolulu as a teacher, along with his sons. While in Hawaii, he maintained his personal friendship with Dr. Sun Yat Sen, a Christian and China’s first president after the Revolution of 1911. Rev. Sieux then returned to Chicago’s Chinatown where he continued to teach and preach. His son Paul studied medicine at Northwestern University and his son Joseph attended Lake Forest College. Rev. Sieux also served as leader of the Chinese Nationalist League of America that opposed the restoration of China’s monarchy.
While Evangelical Free Church history describes Hans Jensen von Qualen as the first missionary of the Swedish Free Mission to South China, without the prompting of Eugene Sieux and John Lee one wonders whether South China would have become the first mission field of the Swedish Free Mission. Clearly, von Qualen and Swedish-American Free missionaries to China were valuable to the work there, but the labors of Eugene Sieux and John Lee were essential in establishing the mission known today as the Evangelical Free Church of China.