Beyond the Moon Gate: Margaret Outerbridge in China, 1938-1950

Les Harding is Reference Librarian at the University of Waterloo.

“Only heaven knows what the future holds for us. I have to keep
telling myself this does not matter because ‘We are Missionaries’!
But I am not. Ralph is. I am Ralph’s wife. The love that takes me to
China is not the love that impels my husband. . . . But this is my life,
freely chosen, and I must take what comes and squeeze every bit of joy
out of it.”

This is the diary of Margaret Outerbridge, a Canadian woman who lived
in China during the turbulent years 1938 to 1950. Munro has done a
superb job of adapting Margaret’s story. What emerges is a fascinating
and deeply moving chronicle. In many ways missionary wives had a heavier
cross to bear than their husbands did. The wives, without official
status, had to battle against despair and loneliness in an alien
culture. At times Margaret had the strange feeling that she was walking
through the pages of National Geographic. Through the horrors of the
Sino-Japanese War, civil war, and Communist takover, as well as through
earthquake, filth, disease, shortage, and privation, Margaret raised a
family. Amazingly she kept her spirit, her sense of humor, and, most
importantly, her capacity to love.

The “moon gate” of the title refers to the inner sanctum of a
Chinese house. Margaret Outerbridge was one of the few Westerners to
pass beyond it.