Former Bookstore of South Fukien Religious Tract Society

The South Fukien Religious Tract Society grew out of the Amoy Bible Committee, a local committee of the Religious Tract Society of London founded by J. Stronach and his wife, members of the London Missionary Society who came as missionaries to Kulangsu in 1844. In 1908, the committee members and those of the American Reformed Church Mission held a meeting in the Union Church resulting in the establishment of the South Fukien Religious Tract Society whose object was the publication and circulation of books and tracts prepared by Shanghai Religious Tract Society, the “Minnan Hymns” in the POJ transcription of the local dialect, and the “Minnan Pronouncing Dictionary” printed by the Cuijingtang Press. At first, the Society carried on its activities as Dadai Road on Kulangsu (now No. 466, Longtou Road). In 1932, the society members donated land and funds to build a three-storey western style building at the intersection of Fujian Road, Longtou Road and Huangyan Road as the new premises—bookstore—for the South Fukien Religious Tract Society. Besides selling the Bible and the hymnal, it also entrusted the Xiamen Beiwen Printers and KulangsuQixin Printers to print tracts and other books on Christian doctrine. The Society printed and sold over 100 different titles printed in the POJ, not only on Kulangsu and Xiamen, but also throughout South Fujian and Southeast Asia.
The three-storey brick and concrete building has a floor area of more than 200 square metres. The corners of the building are cut back at an angle to fit within the location. It has a flat roof and its exterior walls are faced with red brick tiles, as is typical of mansions built on Kulangsu in the 20th century by overseas Chinese.
South Fukien Religious Tract Society was a cultural institution co-founded by local and foreign Christians on Kulangsu in the 20th century, and its former bookstore is still in a good state of preservation. The development and popularisation of the POJ romanisation, together with its significant role in facilitating communication and cultural exchanges presentsa shining example of innovation and development of local traditional culture within a setting of cultural encounter and exchange.