author
Jay William Crofoot
1874–1960
A Seventh Day Baptist missionary and educator, he spent decades in Shanghai and helped produce a practical guide to the local dialect for missionaries and other newcomers. His work offers a small but vivid window into cross-cultural life in early twentieth-century China.
1 Audiobook
滬語開路 = Conversational Exercises in the Shanghai Dialect
by Jay William Crofoot, Frank Joseph Rawlinson
About the author
Born in Nile, New York, on May 1, 1874, Jay William Crofoot later became a minister and missionary in the Seventh Day Baptist tradition. Records from biographical and memorial sources describe a long career centered on Christian mission work, and note that he died in Plainfield, New Jersey, on February 27, 1960.
Crofoot is best remembered as a missionary in Shanghai, where he served for many years. He is also associated with Conversational Exercises in the Shanghai Dialect, a language-learning book prepared with Frank Joseph Rawlinson to help missionaries and other foreign residents practice everyday spoken Shanghai dialect.
That combination of religious work and language study makes him an interesting figure for readers today. Even through a small surviving body of published work, he reflects the close link between teaching, translation, and cross-cultural exchange in his era.