Anna Sofie Jakobsen (Chinese: 鄭安娜, Pinyin: Zhèng ānnà, 8 November 1860,

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

- 1913,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

), also named Anna Cheng, was a Norwegian missionary to China belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church and later with the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

Life

Jakobsen was a maid for a businessman named Christian Rasmussen, and in 1879 both of them established contact with the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Four years after, the

Swedish-American Swedish Americans ( sv, svenskamerikaner) are Americans of Swedish ancestry. They include the 1.2 million Swedish immigrants during 1865–1915, who formed tight-knit communities, as well as their descendants and more recent immigrants. Today, ...

evangelist and missionary friend

Fredrik Franson Fredrik Franson (June 17, 1852 – August 2, 1908) was a Swedish-born American evangelical theologian, founder of The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM), of Chicago, Illinois. He has been called " Moody's Swedish disciple". Biography He w ...

came to the city and held meetings in Rasmussen's home. Anna Jakobsson was one of those who answered the call, and in 1884 she participated in the first evangelist course held by Franson in Christiania. Later that year she went to England, where she was accepted by the

. She sailed with Sophie Reuter to China on 18 November 1885 as one of the first

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

missionaries to china. She was placed in the province of

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

, where she worked at the county of

Huozhou Huozhou (), formerly Huo County or Huoxian, is a county-level city in Linfen, in southern Shanxi Province, China. The city spans an area or 765 square kilometers, and has a population of 155,000 as of 2017. Administrative divisions Huozhou has ...

. When Jakobsen announced her intention to marry a Chinese Christian evangelist, ''Cheng Xiuqi'', there was subsequently a fierce campaign against her in the ''North-China Herald'' and she was forced to resign from the China Inland Mission. Such marriage were not then accepted by the missionary leadership and Western community. The couple then started an independent mission called " Anna Cheng's Mission" in

Zezhou Zezhou County () is a county in the southeast of Shanxi province, China, bordering Henan province to the south. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Jincheng, and surrounds the latter's central Chengqu, or urban area. Its ...

(泽州) (now

Jincheng Jincheng is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Shanxi province, China, bordering Henan province to the south and southeast. It is an industrial city in an area where coal mining is an important industry. The entire city has a population ...

) in

Shanxi Province Shanxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is ...

. Jakobsen was very disappointed with the welcome her husband received by some Christians in

when they were on vacation there in 1900. Their Mission nevertheless received financial support from Norway, which persisted even after Jakobsen's death.

Memory

In the Autumn of 2010, a

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I * Pla ...

was unveiled on the wall of Jakobsen's house in

where both she and Sophie Reuter worked before they left for China.

Bibliography

*Dehlin, Harald Stene. 1985. ''Pionerer i skjørt: høsten 1885 forlot de unge norske kvinnene Sofie Reuter og Anna Jakobsen London med Kina som reisemål'', Oslo: Norsk Luthersk Forlag. *Benson, Linda. Fall 2001.
Muslims, Missionaries and Warlords in Northwestern China
', Oakland University Journal. (pg. 14.)

External links

Ricci Roundtable Biography
1860 births 1913 deaths Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in China Female Christian missionaries Norwegian expatriates in China 19th-century Lutherans {{Christianity-bio-stub