Ever since China's humiliating treatment at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference - which, among other things, handed the former German colonies of Weihaiwei and Tsingtao to Japan - a sense of nationhood had been growing among Chinese students and intellectuals. This nationalism, which was quite different from the old Chinese ethnocentrism, started with the May Fourth Movement commemorating the date of the Treaty of Versailles. That movement not only stimulated a renaissance of Chinese education and literature, but also articulated for the first time a 'public opinion' in the country. Unfortunately, this opinion expressed itself as a campaign to expel the imperialists (meaning the British).

One wing of this anti-imperialism was specifically directed against Christian institutions. 'Gold and iron make our bodies slaves of the foreigners,' stated the manifesto of the Anti-Christian Student Federation; 'the Gospel enslaves our souls.' The federation was founded in 1922 in reaction to two events that year that seemed to emphasize the imperialist nature of Christianity. The first was the convening of the World Student Christian Federation in Peking, the other the publication of a massive tome entitled The Christian Occupation of China, in which maps and demographic charts detailed every aspect of mission work and showed what still was left to be 'occupied.'

For the rest of the decade, anti-Christian demonstrations were the order of the day at mission stations throughout China. These could take the form of a 'student storm,' a boycott of classes - which could be begun on almost any pretext, from the undue emphasis given to studying the Babylonian Wars in the compulsory Christian history course, to the quality of food in the boarding school. A servants' strike was another common type of protest. The West China mission sustained one particularly severe strike in 1924 when the entire servant population of all foreign institutions in Szechuan walked off their jobs in protest against the actions of the Canadian mission's builder, W.H. [sic] Leonard. (The other missionaries sided with the Chinese against Mr Leonard, voting that he be recalled immediately. Citing his 'unfortunate disposition,' Dr Kyle Simpson, the doctor at the Fowchow station, wrote that he himself had heard Leonard 'call the workmen Water Buffalo, and fools. I have also heard him ask a man if he wanted him to hire a wet nurse for him ... I think you will agree with me that is not the kind of thing which is likely to inspire Mr. McAmmond to invite a man to preach occasionally!')

Such demonstrations occurred at every station throughout China, especially at times like Christmas and Easter and during annual conferences. (Many missionaries noted cynically how often student strikes seemed to coincide with examination time.) Usually these were nonviolent, little more than heckling at the mission gates, but they could easily turn into shoving matches between mission personnel and the 'crowds of coolies, soldiers, farmers and students marching about the streets with their fife and drum bands, carrying flags and banners on which were written such slogans as "Down with Imperialism," "Down with militarism," "Down with the YMCA," "Down with Christianity," "Down with the running dogs of the imperialists."'