The China Mission, which started in 1906, was established as an autonomous entity on 1 January 1923, when the Visitatoria della China was erected, comprising 32 confreres and houses and works in Macao, Heung Shan and Shiu Chow. As new missions in Japan and Siam were being accepted or considered, the Sino-Japanese Province was erected on 28 May 1926. In December of that same year Fr. Pietro Ricaldone set out on a year-long extraordinary visitation of the Asian Missions.By the time the visitation ended in late 1927, there was a Salesian regional presence and a well established juridical structure in East Asia.

This brief paper intends to outline the juridical configuration and development strategies of the Salesian work in China and study the internal and external conditions that influenced its first expansion, in the years 1926-1927, in East Asia. Continue reading “Carlo Socol – “The birth of the China province and the expansion of the salesian work in east Asia (1926-1927)” in “The beginning of the Salesian presence in east Asia”.” →