John MacGowan of Amoy -- and Hayley Mills?!

Ahoy from Amoy!

I was happy to hear again from the descendants of John MacGowan, the Amoy missionary who wrote so many books a century ago, (I have all of them). But there is almost nothing about his own life, and I have only a couple photos of him, so it is fun to learn a bit more about him--and a surprise to learn that one of his descendants is Hayley Mills (I had a crush on her when I was too young to even know what a crush was!). I was also surprised to learn that Hayley's ancestors had been in Siam in the 1830s (she was in the musical "Anna and the King of Siam").

Below is the second email (which I take the liberty of posting, since it does not have their names).

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill's Amazon eBooks

"Discover Xiamen"

"Fujian Adventure"

www.amoymagic.com
Yesterday's Email:

John MacGowan's descendent is Hayley Mills, the actress.  In 1990's she toured in the musical "The King & I" based on the book "Anna and the King of Siam."   I wondered if she knew that her family had been in Siam in the 1830's: decades before Anna got there.  Hayley Mills' family might have info about MacGowan.  We have a little info about the time he married Jennie Peet. I'm not at home now so I can't give you all the names but I'll fill it in when I get back in about 2 weeks.  

 

Lyman Burt Peet married _____ Sherrill (first wife who died in China) 

Their daughter Jennie Peet (born in Siam) married John MacGowan

Their daughter ______married____ Bell

Their daughter Mary Hayley Bell married John Mills.

Their daughter is Hayley Mills.

 

Do MaGowan's books have photos?

 

 We are descended from Peet's second wife Hannah Louisa Plimpton.  She later married Rev. Charles Hartwell.

We have photos of chapels and lists of villages Rev Peet served as well as and drawings and banners.  Would you like me to email you copies?  We have shoes for bound feet, etc...

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Lyman Burton Peet and John Macgowan, Amoy and Foochow

Today I received the intriguing but unsigned email below (at the bottom of this post). I hope to hear more from them. It has been so hard obtaining information, photos, etc. for the proposed Amoy Mission museum we hope to open.

Dr. Bill

Bill's Amazon eBooks

"Discover Xiamen"

"Fujian Adventure"

www.amoymagic.com
Unsigned Email Received Today
 My family was in Amoy / Pagoda Anchorage from 1847 till 1925. Three generations. Lyman Burt Peet and family went to China from Siam. His son Lyman Plimpton Peet became a missionary. His daughter Jennie married British missionary Rev Macgowan. His daughter Ellen Louisa married Rev George Henry Hubbard. Nellie was born there and died there in 1925. Her children were born in Foochow. My grandmother was her youngest. We have some photos and drawings.

Fujian Adventure eBook $1.99 promotion on Amazon! 魅力福建

With over 520 pages and almost 700 photos, many by Fujian's top photographers, Fujian Adventure is now an eBook on Amazon for $1.99 promotional price ($5.99 regularly). Click here to download  a copy and if you enjoy it, please rate it and share the link with your friends!

If you (like me), don't have a Kindle, download  Free Amazon Reading Apps to read it on Android and Apple devices,or Mac and Windows computers.

Thanks so much for helping to get the word out. I hope to have some of my other 11 books online this summer. 

Enjoy Amoy! 

Dr. Bill 

Amazon description of Fujian Adventure.
Columbus' goal was not a New World but a shortcut to India and to Marco Polo’s fabled Zayton in Fujian, China. Columbus never made it to Zayton, but you can.

Over 500 pages and almost 700 photos, many by award-winning Chinese photographers, bring to life the people and places of Fujian (Fukien), the cradle of Chinese seafaring (200 B.C.), start of the Maritime Silk Route, port of departure for Marco Polo and ibn Battuta, and ancestral home of most overseas Chinese.

Meet Admiral Zhenghe, the "real" Sinbad; the ancient Southern Shaolin Kung Fu Temple’s youthful abbot; the Hui'an maidens who cover their heads, bare their bellies, and only sleep with their husbands 3 nights a year; the firewalkers who dance across the flames bearing heavy idols; melancholy Miss Mo who became the sea goddess Mazu; Zayton’s famous marionette makers; the Anxi farmers who produced the tea tossed overboard during the Boston Tea Party. Visit China’s first Protestant church and the planet’s last Manichean temple. Explore Gulangyu, the Roaring 20s’ “richest square mile on earth,” which even today has over 1,000 “Amoy Deco” mansions. Discover the secret of Hakka roundhouses that Nixon and the CIA thought were missile silos, and then visit the nearby Amoy tiger preserve. Enjoy scenic Sanming, with China's 4th largest gem beds, China’s largest sleeping Buddha, Ming Dynasty villages, enchanting caverns and underground lakes. Marvel at Wuyi Mountain’s 2,000-year-old Min Palace, and the Eden-like biological diversity that drew French naturalists in the 1700s to study the rare plants, king cobras and 33 foot pythons.

And of course there’s the Fujian food. Moliere said "Man should eat to live, not eat to live," but Dr. Bill says, "Moliere never ate Chinese food—especially Fujian food.”

Locals say Fujian is “8 parts mountain, 1 part water, 1 part field”. This torturous terrain not only gave rise to an innovative and tough people but also to more local dialects and greater cultural diversity—including cuisines—than any other province. Every hill, valley and river has a story behind it, and Dr. Bill invites you to explore them.

Author Bill Brown, Prof. of Organizational Behavior and Business Strategy at School of Management, Xiamen University, was Fujian's first foreign permanent resident and has driven over 200,000 km. around China,even through the Gobi Desert and Tibet,幸福福建),but still considers Fujian the most fascinating province for foreigners. In addition to textbooks such as Art of Business Warfare (Beijing University Press), he has written ten books about Fujian. He has also written and hosted several TV documentaries, including a 62-episode mini-series, "Fujian in a Foreigner's Eyes". In addition to teaching MBA, he hosts the weekly "Xingfu Fujian"《幸福福建》。
潘维廉/潘威廉,厦门大学管理学院福建省

 Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com

Researching Nicholas Fitzmaurice British Consul General, Kulangsu / Gulangyu 1937 - 1941

Below is a fascinating email received today from Ms. Mary T. If anyone has info on Nicholas Fitzmaurice, plesae share it (it would be fun to see the old photos she alludes to).

Dear Mr. Brown,

 

I plan to visit Gulangyu in March this year with my daughter.    The Consulate General Residence was my first home.   I was born in Peking in 1937, Nicholas Fitzmaurice’s daughter.   My husband and I toured China in 1994 and finished our travels on Gulangyu where, with the help of the Museum Curator and a charming girl with some English from a small hotel, we eventually located the sad-looking house – almost unrecognisable from the childhood photographs I had taken with me.   It was smothered with 50+ years of sub-tropical jungle, very decrepit with crumbling walls and ceilings and damaged light fittings etc.   I was just thrilled it was still there and had survived the Japanese, who interred my father with  Murray MacLehose, his ‘No. 2” at the time and who, in the 1970’s, was one of Hong Kong’s most successful Governors. Also I wondered if Mao’s  Red Guards had sacked it.   

 

My husband took masses of photographs of the place and when home I sent copies of 1941 and 1994 to the curator and Hua Chung Wha (?sp) as  a thank-you for their help.   I didn’t expect any response from them, so imagine my delight and surprise when I opened my daily copy of The Times to see a photograph of the Consulate!   It was being “opened” after restoration by the Chinese Government and looked almost identical to the photographs I had sent.   It was a huge thrill for me and now an opportunity has arisen which will enable me to return there.   P & O have a cruise from Sydney to Hong Kong  in February and amongst other ports they are stopping for a day in Xiamen with an excursion to Gulangyu.     My daughter lives in Australia and she is also very excited about the memories she has heard being brought to life.   I have a feeling that in the last 20 years, Gulangyu is very much more developed than when I was last there, but so is everywhere else!

 

My father knew the Japanese were going to invade Kulangsu as they were firing on the beaches and as it was almost impossible to get passage to Britain then, we were evacuated to Dunedin where some of my father’s cousins lived.   It was not until 1943 he joined us there and we returned to England via the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic without a convoy!   Great excitement for my brother and me, living in life-jackets and lifeboat drill every day.  

 

Are you able to advise me what the Consulate is now being used for?  I found a website which said that it is a coin museum but has not been updated since 2007 and I wonder whether that is still the case.   I am not clever enough to identify it on any map.   I should be grateful if you would have time to help me with this.   I leave for Australia on ...

 

Best wishes,

Mary Txxxx (nee Fitzmaurice)

 

Fun Anecdote about the Consulate: it was built on a bluff atop Zhangzhou Road in Tianwei--the best fengshui on the islet. Chinese were furious but could do nothing. It was originally two floors, but after a typhoon blew off the upper floor, the British declined to rebuilt it, and it is one story to this day. The Chinese took the typhoon as evidence of God's judgement on the invaders, and chuckle about it to this day.

Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com