“This book is a significant contribution to both missionary studies and the history of medicine. Taking a refreshingly empirical approach, Michelle Renshaw looks past the rhetoric surrounding the value of medical missions in China to examine what actually happened in the encounter between Chinese and western medical and religious cultures. Her consistent finding is that missionaries made significant concessions to Chinese expectations and cultural preferences in every area of their activity. While missionaries emphasized bringing the ‘light’ of western science and religion, the reality was a cultural compromise that deemphasized differences rather than highlighting them.”