The tall, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman was inconsistent with Aylward’s small stature, dark hair and cockney accent. Although she found herself a figure of international interest, thanks to the popularity of the film and television and media interviews, Aylward was mortified by her depiction in the film and the many liberties it took. It drew from the book The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess. Per Wikipedia The Inn of the Eight HappinessesĪ film based on her life, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, was released in 1958. Gladys was not pleased with the movie for a number of reasons: Shortly after her biography by Alan Burgess was released in 1957 the movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was released by 20th Century Fox in 1958. The YouTube video below is a narrated pictorial story of Gladys Aylward’s exceptional life story which transformed a four foot ten inch “Small Woman” into a Giant of the Christian Faith. Learn more about her life and work at Wikipedia: There she founded the Gladys Aylward Orphanage, where she worked until her death in 1970. However, she was denied re-entry by the Communist government and instead settled in Taiwan, in 1958. She returned to Britain in 1948, where, after 10 years she sought to return to China. In 1938, the region was invaded by Japanese forces, and Aylward led over 100 orphans to safety over the mountains, despite being wounded herself. Īylward became a Chinese citizen in 1936 and was a revered figure among the people, taking in orphans and adopting several herself, intervening in a volatile prison riot and advocating prison reform, risking her life many times to help those in need. She met with much success in a field that had produced much resistance, including sometimes violence against the inspectors. For a time she served as an assistant to the Chinese government as a “foot inspector” by touring the countryside to enforce the new law against footbinding young Chinese girls. On her arrival in Yangcheng, Aylward worked with an older missionary, Jeannie Lawson, to found The Inn of the Eight Happinesses. The perilous trip took her across Siberia, where she was forced to get off the train she was on and find an alternate mode of transportation to her destination. Her determination was such that, in 1932, she spent her life savings on a passage to Yangcheng, Shanxi Province, China. Although she became a domestic worker (housemaid) at an early age, she always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary and studied with great determination in order to be fitted for the role, only to be turned down because her academic background was inadequate, and the China Inland Mission to which she applied was convinced that it was not possible to learn the language at her age. Her parents were Thomas John Aylward and Rodina Florence Aylward (née Whiskin). Early lifeĪylward was born to a working class family in Edmonton, North London, in 1902. In 1958, the story was made into the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman although the movie was produced by Twentieth Century Fox, it was filmed entirely in North Wales and England. Gladys May Aylward (24 February 1902 – 3 January 1970) was a British evangelical Christian missionary to China, whose story was told in the book, The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess, published in 1957. Gladys Aylward’s Long Journey to the Mission Field Then she took a boat from hull to the Hague she gave nine pence in copper to the porter who carried her luggage and secured a corner seat in the train from Holland the train went through Germany, Poland and Russia.Gladys Aylward, Missionary to China – Small Woman but Big Life – Faith Stories You Won’t Forget Series The whistle blew and the train hissed and she waved to her family until they were out of sight.
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