Missionary Kids among “Worlds” and Loyalties: The Case of Aadel Brun Tschudi (1909-1980)

Children of missionaries (or Missionary Kids, MKs) are defined and studied as “Third Culture Kids” (TCK), “Global Nomads” or “Cross-Cultural Kids” (CCK). Growing up in a culture different from the one of their parents, and due to numerous relocations between different cultures, countries and “Worlds,” TCKs are characterized as culturally flexible, with an expanded worldview, a multiplicity of languages and a tolerance for difference. The many benefits of their lifestyle, however, are often mitigated by recurring losses – of relationships, stability and permanent roots. There are many examples of MKs playing important roles as promoters of intercultural understanding and cross-cultural competence. In this paper, the life story, academic and professional career and voluntary engagement of Ada Brun Tschudi (1909-1980), daughter of Norwegian missionaries to Hunan, China, is discussed from the perspective of transloyalties. Besides her academic career as a professor in geography at the University of Oslo, she for decades served as an East-Asia correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Known by the Norwegian audience as “the voice from China,” she contributed in the 1950-70s through her radio reporting to a deeper understanding of geography, culture and socio-political conditions in China. Her sympathies with the communist revolution and the PRC were controversial in church milieus. Meanwhile, Tschudi continued to volunteer in church and mission work. While China was closed to most foreign visitors since the 1950s, she visited Chinese Lutheran church members and secretly delivered reports “from behind the bamboo curtain” to mission leaders at home.