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Samuel Pollard (20 April 1864 in Camelford, Cornwall – 16 September 1915 in China) was a Methodist missionary to China who converted many of the Big Flowery Miao (now called the Hmong) in Guizhou to Christianity, and who created a writing system that is still in use today.

Biography

Born the son of a Bible Christian Church preacher, Sam Pollard initially aimed for a career in the civil service. However, a conference in London in 1885 encouraged him to instead become a missionary. He was appointed a missionary in 1886, left the United Kingdom for China in 1887, and was posted to Yunnan province in 1888. He remained in China, as a missionary, until his death from typhoid.

In 1891 he was posted to a newly opened Bible Christian mission station in Chaotung, where he married Emmie Hainge. He began a Christian movement with the Big Flowery Miao in 1905 that spread to Chaotung; and he invented a script for the Miao language, which he used to translate the New Testament, which has remained in use for 90 years, despite efforts to supersede it, and which still bears his name: the "Pollard script" (also sometimes called the "Ahmao script"). He based the script upon ideas taken from shorthand.

During his mission he travelled extensively, founding churches, training other missionaries, performing the role of language examiner, and arguing the causes of Miao Christians.

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Bibliography

• Sam Pollard (with Henry Smith and F J Dymond) (1909). The Story of the Miao. United Methodist Magazine. republished posthumously as:
  • Sam Pollard (with Henry Smith and F J Dymond) (1919). The Story of the Miao. London: Henry Hooks.
• Sam Pollard (1913). Tight Corners in China.
• Sam Pollard (1921). In Unknown China: observations, adventures and experiences of a pioneer missionary.
• Sam Pollard, ed R Elliott Kendall (1954). Eyes of the Earth: the diary of Samuel Pollard. London, Cargate Press.

References

• "Sam Pollard". School of Oriental and African Studies Library. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) — the School of Oriental and African Studies Library holds most of Sam Pollard's notes, diaries, letters, and papers
• George Ernest Morrison. "An Australian in China". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) — Morrison recounts meeting Sam Pollard and his wife at the Bible Christian Mission in 1894
• "Old Shebbearian News". Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) — reports on an article in The Sunday Times describing the continuing influence of the work of Sam Pollard after his death
• Daniel W. Crofts, College of New Jersey. "The Hei Miao, the Hua Miao, and the Protestant "Civilizing Project" in Early-Twentieth-Century Guizhou". AAS Annual Meeting 2005, China and Inner Asia session 168. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) — quotes Sam Pollard in his efforts to instil a "new-born sense of shame" into his converts, to curb behaviour that he regarded as being drunkenness and promiscuity
• Edwin Dingle. "Across China on Foot". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) — Dingle describes how Sam Pollard used positioning of vowel marks relative to consonants to indicate tones
• Jacques Lemoine. "Ethnicity, Culture, and Development Among Some Minorities of the People's Republic of China" (PDF). University of Hong Kong Libraries. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) — Lemoine reports that after 1949 the Pollard script was retained as a symbol of cultural identity and pride
• Peter Mannion. "Re: I want to know Samuel Pollard". Pollard Family Genealogy Forum at genealogy.com. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Further reading

• William Alexander Grist (1921). Samuel Pollard. Pioneer Missionary in China. London: Henry Hooks.
• Walter Pollard (1928). Sam Pollard, a hero of China. London: Seeley, Service & Co.
• Ernest H Hayes (1946). Sam Pollard of Yunnan: The Pioneer Series. Wallington: Religious Education Press., also published as:
  • Ernest H Hayes (1947). Sam Pollard of Yunnan. Carwal Publications.
• Zai Wei Zhide Zhongguo (In Unknown China). Yunnan Minorities Press. 2002. ISBN 7-5367-2353-9. — full Chinese translations of books about the ministry of Po Geli (Sam Pollard) including The Story of the Miao, In Unknown China, Stone Gateway, and the Flowery Miao
• Daniel W. Crofts, College of New Jersey. "The symbols and sounds of the Ahmao script" (PDF). AAS Annual Meeting 2005, China and Inner Asia session 168. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• R Keith Parsons. "The people called "A-hmao" and their writing". A-Hmao introduction. Retrieved July 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Daniel H. Bays (editor) (1996). Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Stanford University Press. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help) — Part II includes Norma Diamond's study of Sam Pollard's work
• Samuel Pollard : missionary supreme, born 20th April, 1864; a centenary tribute. 1964. ISBN 1122221380. (listed on Alibris)
• R Elliot Kendall (1948). Beyond the Clouds. The story of Samuel Pollard of South-West China. Cargate Press.
• Ernest C. Pollard (1993). Sermons in Stones. The Woodburn Press. — Written by Samuel Pollard's son, a well-known professor of physics and biophysics. "Sermon" 17, The Story of Sam Pollard, written for Atheists offers a very personal look at Sam Pollard's life and motivation

External links

• Samuel Pollard's family tree

• 1864 births
• 1915 deaths
• Methodists
• Religious biography stubs
• Inventors of writing systems