author
Isaac Taylor Headland
1859–1942
A Methodist missionary, teacher, and writer, he spent many years in China and became known for lively books that introduced Western readers to everyday life at the Qing court and in Chinese homes. His work blends firsthand observation with the perspective of an American educator living through a period of major change.
2 Audiobooks
Court Life in China: The Capital, Its Officials and People
by Isaac Taylor Headland
The Chinese Boy and Girl
by Isaac Taylor Headland
About the author
Born in Freedom, Pennsylvania, in 1859, he studied at Mount Union College and Boston University School of Theology before going to China in 1890 as a Methodist Episcopal missionary. He taught in Beijing and was associated with what sources describe as Peking University and other educational work in China.
Headland wrote a number of books about Chinese society, including works on home life, child life, and court life in China. These books helped make him one of the better-known American interpreters of late Qing China for English-language readers of his time.
After his years overseas, he returned to the United States and later taught at Mount Union College. He died in 1942, leaving behind writing that remains of interest both for its vivid storytelling and for what it reveals about American views of China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.