Sam Pollard
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Samuel Pollard (20 April 1864 in Camelford, Cornwall – 16 September 1915 in China) was a Methodist missionary to China who converted many of the Big Flowery Miao (now called the Hmong) in Guizhou to Christianity, and who created a writing system that is still in use today.
Biography
Born the son of a Bible Christian Church preacher, Sam Pollard initially aimed for a career in the civil service. However, a conference in London in 1885 encouraged him to instead become a missionary. He was appointed a missionary in 1886, left the United Kingdom for China in 1887, and was posted to Yunnan province in 1888. He remained in China, as a missionary, until his death from typhoid.In 1891 he was posted to a newly opened Bible Christian mission station in Chaotung, where he married Emmie Hainge. He began a Christian movement with the Big Flowery Miao in 1905 that spread to Chaotung; and he invented a script for the Miao language, which he used to translate the New Testament, which has remained in use for 90 years, despite efforts to supersede it, and which still bears his name: the "Pollard script" (also sometimes called the "Ahmao script"). He based the script upon ideas taken from shorthand.
During his mission he travelled extensively, founding churches, training other missionaries, performing the role of language examiner, and arguing the causes of Miao Christians.
Bibliography
- republished posthumously as:
- *
References
- — the School of Oriental and African Studies Library holds most of Sam Pollard's notes, diaries, letters, and papers
- — Morrison recounts meeting Sam Pollard and his wife at the Bible Christian Mission in 1894
- — reports on an article in The Sunday Times describing the continuing influence of the work of Sam Pollard after his death
- — quotes Sam Pollard in his efforts to instil a "new-born sense of shame" into his converts, to curb behaviour that he regarded as being drunkenness and promiscuity
- — Dingle describes how Sam Pollard used positioning of vowel marks relative to consonants to indicate tones
- — Lemoine reports that after 1949 the Pollard script was retained as a symbol of cultural identity and pride
Further reading
- , also published as:
- *
- — full Chinese translations of books about the ministry of Po Geli (Sam Pollard) including The Story of the Miao, In Unknown China, Stone Gateway, and the Flowery Miao
- — Part II includes Norma Diamond's study of Sam Pollard's work
- (listed on Alibris)
- — Written by Samuel Pollard's son, a well-known professor of physics and biophysics. "Sermon" 17, The Story of Sam Pollard, written for Atheists offers a very personal look at Sam Pollard's life and motivation
External links
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