Pearl and Bessie
A Baby Abandoned on a Rubbish Dump, and the Woman Who Saved Her
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Pearl and Bessie
Buy Now for £18.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Elena Curti
About this listen
Pearl and Bessie
A baby abandoned on a rubbish dump, and the woman who saved her
On the rubbish dump, a baby cried.
The cry was weak, and fading. The wild dogs had picked up the cries, and the scent, and were circling, closing in.
Bessie walked towards the sound and found a day-old baby girl. She had been abandoned because of her sex. It happened often here, in south west China.
If Bessie did nothing, the baby would be torn to pieces. So she picked her up, carried her to safety, and later adopted her. Yet, in saving her life, did Bessie condemn the baby she named Pearl to a life of fear and persecution?
This is Pearl’s story, and that of Bessie, plus Alf – Bessie’s then fiancé, later husband – and John, a second Han Chinese child the couple adopted.
Bessie and Alf were Methodist missionaries in Yunnan province, south west China, in the first half of the twentieth century. They lived through momentous times, including the Japanese occupation, the Second World War, the civil war, the Communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution.