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Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.
Steve Riley speaks to Grace Morton who was born in China in 1897 and lived there on and off until 1932.
Morton recounts how her missionary family evacuated China during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). After four years in England, Morton’s mother moved the family back to China to resume her missionary work. The family settled in Chefoo (now called Yantai).
Morton recalls the 1911 Revolution. As a then 12-year-old, the main changes Morton observed were in people’s fashion. Pigtails were banned for men and women were no longer allowed to bind their feet.
She returned to England for schooling and studied a teaching qualification in France before returning to China to be close to her family, all of whom were missionaries. She got a demanding teaching job in a picturesque remote rural town. After suffering burn-out Morton stayed with her mother and sister to recuperate. Travel was very dangerous during the Warlord Era (1916-1928).
She found a much better job in Chefoo (Yantai) after she recovered but daily life was still volatile. She described an incident where pirates mistakenly hijacked a boat transporting children to school.
Morton later moved to Canton with her dog and talks about the challenges of the damp climate. One day men with anti-aircraft guns were firing from her lawn.
Morton recounts her favourite job in cosmopolitan Shanghai though anti-Japanese sentiments and Chinese nationalism was growing grew at this time. A refugee camp was bombed. By the time the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) officially started Morton was living in Czechoslovakia.
You can hear more about Grace’s experience in Czechoslovakia in Spectrum 176 and 177 https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=178147
Morton says that she loved living in China but always felt like a foreigner. She felt like a foreigner everywhere she lived, including New Zealand.