Chow Leung was a Chinese author, educator, and missionary in the United States. He was the co-author of Chinese Fables and Folk Stories, which he wrote with Mary Hayes Davis. Born in China, he was a Baptist missionary in Chicago's Chinatown, where he started a Chinese language school for children in 1900, likely the first in the city. Chinese Fables and Folk Stories claimed to be "the first book of Chinese stories ever printed in English". Compiled and published prior to the rise of vernacular Chinese, the book was later called one of the most "reliable" works by Western scholars on Chinese folktales before 1937.
Early life and education
Chow Leung received a Confucian education in China. His grandfather was said to have been a "high-ranking Confucian" and “one of the emperor’s favorites.” He converted to Christianity in San Francisco at a “street meeting”, and joined the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He was ordained as a Baptist minister.
Pastor in Chicago
In 1900, Reverend Chow Leung was sent to Chicago to take over as pastor of the Central Baptist Chinese Mission. He succeeded Reverend Lee Tsai Leung. William Pickett was the superintendent. The mission was located in the "old" Chinatown, on South Clark Street in the Chicago Loop.
When Wu Tingfang, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, visited Chicago in 1901, he made a point of visiting Chinatown. One of the stops on his visit was the Baptist Chinese Mission, hosted by Reverend Chow Leung.
Open-air preaching
With assistance from the Young Men's band from Moody Church and the Christian Endeavorers of Chicago, the Central Baptist Chinese Mission held regular open-air musical performances from the rooftop of its one-story building. Known as the "rooftop garden act", the music drew crowds who stopped to listen. Chow Leung himself played a baby organ. Between sets, Reverend Chow Leung and others would preach on the street in Chinese and English. In the evening, the band went indoors, drawing the crowds inside the mission for meetings. On at least one occasion, participants were arrested for blocking the streets.
In the summer of 1904, Chow Leung was involved in a highly publicized "battle of noise" between the Christian evangelists and the "joss house" or temple in Chinatown. Frustrated with the music and noise coming from the Christian mission, the joss-house priest played a kettle drum from the temple balcony, which was answered by gongs, drums, and rattles from either side of South Clark Street. According to The Inter Ocean, Chow Leung smiled and stated that he fully expected his opponents to be even louder the following Sunday.
Public speaking
In September 1904, Chow Leung reported on progress at the Chinese mission at the Chicago Baptist Association conference. In April 1907, Chow Leung addressed the largest gathering of native Chinese to have been assembled in Chicago, as the only ordained Chinese minister in the city. The interdenominational congregation gathered at Assembly Hall, where the Presbyterian minister Andrew Beattie, a former missionary in China, gave a sermon in Cantonese. He was visiting to raise donations for victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. At that point, the Chinese population in Chicago had grown to approximately 4,000, in part due to the earthquake in San Francisco.
Chinese language school
In 1900, Chow Leung founded a Chinese language school for children in Chicago. It was a departure from the Sunday schools offered by the Christian missions in Chicago, which had focused on providing English-language instruction to Chinese adults since 1878. Under Reverend Chow Leung, the Baptist Chinese Mission offered Chinese language classes on weekdays from four o'clock in the afternoon, and in the evenings. Pupils also attended "regular" public school during the day, where they received instruction in English. The Chinese school operated year-round, with no vacations. Tuition was free, but pupils were expected to attend regularly.