Bamboo Church founder's descendent's letter

Ahoy from Amoy! (Historic Xiamen, China).

I've just received a couple of interesting letters from a man who is a descendant of people who were very influential in the Amoy Mission and also pioneering education not only in Amoy but also in the Philippines (they founded Xiamen's Bamboo Church, built the first road connecting Xiamen to Fuzhou City, founded the Ta Teng Drugstore in Xiamen and the Amoy Foods, which moved to Hong Kong, helped Sun Yat-sen overthrow the Qing Dynasty, etc. I attach his letter (with his full name removed; if you'd like to contact him, send me your contact info and I'll forward it).

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill 

December 5 (Monday) 2016

Dear brother Bill:

Thanks for intro opportunities around Xiamen...  My CV was sent under a separate email following the 1st. Indeed E. W. Tan my sister has been to Xiamen regularly and we still have many direct relatives in Xiamen. Glad to know your strong affiliation with Xiamen our mother home town. Our affiliation/legacy runs over 100 years with Xiamen as my grandfather Dr. Chen Tien En was a famous surgeon in Xiamen the Tatung Drugstore was one time owned by our family he was Dr. Sun Yet Sun's classmate he was the head for Fukkien Province together with Dr. Sun Yet Sun in overthrowing the last Manchus Dynasty and Dr. Sun Yet Sun established the Republic of China.

He had great contribution to the infrastructure of Xiamen and the old 1st road connecting Xiamen and Fuzhou City was build by my grandfather and donated to the gov't he died in 1949 of old age. As founder of the "bamboo church", which now has 7000 church members and planning on building a larger sanctuary sitting 4000.00. The lady pastor Chen Man Li visited our family in Manila we also run a large mission high school (K-12) plus now a Grace Christian College my brother Dr. James Lee Tan is college president. Mother Mrs. Julia Lee Tan and Dr. & Mrs. Edwin & Spahr Baptist missionaries from Philadelphia, Penna USA founded in 1950.

Dr. Chen Tien Un would go weekends to rural Fukien heal the sick/establish over 200 churches throughout Fukien Province but only  the Bamboo Church was revived in 1985. When I visited The Bamboo Church there were 150 members and I was asked to preach and play my piano accordion on Sunday servies. I was also invited to play my piano accordion solo numbers at the Trinity Church, Kulangsu, Xiamen then during my academic lecture tour of China. My grandfather also founded the Amoy Canning Corporation (moved to Hongkong) and the 2nd largest paper mill of China in Futzou City which I visited with his large picture in lobby.

If you open the website Grace Christian College, Quezon City, Grace Villlage, Philippines you might see the photos of the founders with mother Mrs. Julia Lee Tan and Dr & Mrs. Edwin/Helen Spahr.I have written Intl Markering books used in my MBA courses and am particularly good in CASE ANALYSIS in MBA classes in "Organizational Behavior" and "Intl Marketing Strategies". You mentioned arriving In Xiamen Univ 1988 whereas, I was invited for the one month Intl Marketing Strategies series of lectures by Xiamen Univ College of Economics, Dept of Intl Trade.

The president daughter was then head of the Marketing Dept of Xiamen University...

My name, Prof. J. L. T. was also placed in China website as once consultant to Xiamen City Major when Huli Industrial Zone just opened for foreign investments.

Thank you will plan on visiting Xiamen by end January, 2017 and hope to meet you at Xiamen University.

Best regards,

Prof. J.L. T.

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com