"Dr. Chu's volume is a richly documented, fair-minded, and illuminating account of the Maryknoll Sisters' experience in Hong Kong from their arrival in 1921 through the 1960s. She shows how that experience became significantly intertwined with the history of Hong Kong itself during those difficult, changeful decades as the Sisters responded to one pressing social need after another. The helping hand of the Maryknoll Sisters came at a time when the Hong Kong Government was understandably overwhelmed by the numbers of refugees that poured into the Crown Colony, especially during the 1950s. The story thus helps explain how Hong Kong managed to cope so remarkably well with some truly exceptional and formidable burdens in the mid-twentieth century, by utilizing, as it did, such fortuitously available, competent and relatively inexpensive volunteers. In turn, the selfless American Sisters were rewarded with a degree of acceptance and with conversion opportunities that, otherwise, might not as readily have been there." - Stephen Uhalley Jr., editor of China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future and author of A History of the Chinese Communist Party "The book illuminates the lives of the Hong Kong people, whose work and industry is so often praised as a major element in Hong Kong's economic success." - Gillian Bickley, Sunday Morning Post
