Martha Chen, Visiting Chinese Teacher

At EMHS and similar Mennonite institutions, the international appeal and character of the Mennonite church has resulted in a remarkably varied collection of experiences.  These take various forms, ranging from faculty with long records of travel and service starting from the typical Mennonite background, but also with numerous international guests coming here.  Martha Chen is one such guest, who we had the pleasure of hearing in chapel recently, and who was happy to share about her life, and how she came to be here.

Martha was born in Bao Ding, in Hebei province, south of Beijing in 1952.  She was raised until the age of six by her grandmother in the countryside, after which she attended a boarding school for six more years.  She attended middle school for one year, however was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, a total upsetting of Chinese culture imposed by its communist dictatorship starting in 1966.  Part of the utter chaos that followed was the collapse of the school system which, while originally novel for the former students (many of whom proceeded to thrash their former teachers), in fact crashed China.  For about three years, Martha would serve as a Red Guard, a communist enthusiast of a sort.  She saw chairman Mao twice around this time, and worked on a sort of commune in Inner Mongolia, a province that is essentially the eastern half of China's border with Mongolia.

In 1972, Martha returned to the city and worked in a factory until 1976.  She studied English for three years after Mao died in that year, and then taught it until 1984.  In September of 1985, she moved to Beijing and taught there until 1989.  She then moved on to a different college until her retirement last year, immediately after which she was requested by Meryl Byler of Mennonite Partners in China to come here.  She gladly obliged, and has been here ever since.

Martha has had a very positive experience since she arrived here.  She really enjoys Americans, and says that our environment is clean and our people friendly.  Because of experience with a much worse situation in China, the incredible blessings we have here are quite clear to her.  She appreciates the United States, and hopes for good relations between our two countries.

- David Jost