The Garners of Shanghai: A Novel of American Missionaries in China, 1901-1927

The Garner’s of Shanghai: A Novel of American Missionaries in China,1901-1927 Dotty Jo Chittum knew she had exotic grandparents. Their home in Upland, California, had a Chinese Moon gate in front, while inside the odors and treasures and photographs of missionary days in China spoke of a time she could only marvel at. Now, as the adult Cameo Archer, she has recalled the stories, read the letters and researched that era of China history—1901 to 1927—to write this saga featuring the Garners who experience the same challenges her grandparents faced. Her Baptist minister grandfather helped found a college, became its president and, in 1927, stood at its gate to defend it from a Chinese army. That he had Communists teaching there shocked him. Her novel character, Dr. Lowell Garner faces the same army and the same revelation from his vice president. The treatment of women, and not just by Chinese men, angered her grandmother. This lack of regard so disturbs Archer’s novel character, Vera Garner, that she chooses not to return to China, but to stay in California where she’s gone to recover her health. But that upsets her husband and splits her marriage by the widest ocean on earth.