"[1] Founded in January 1908, the original purpose was to memorialize the members of the Oberlin Band who were killed in Shansi province, China, during the Boxer Uprising in 1900.
In Oberlin, the ABCFM erected a Memorial Arch with the inscription, “The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church.” [4] After Kung earned degrees at Oberlin College and Yale University, he returned to his native Taigu in 1909 and established a set of schools, the Ming Hsien (for boys) and Beilu (for girls), which constituted “Oberlin-in-China.” In the 1920s Ming Hsien became co-educational, the first school in Shanxi to do so.
A village reconstruction center devoted to literacy education, public health and agricultural improvement was established nearby.
The early work was financially supported from gifts and student fees, but much of the endowment was given by the estate of Charles Martin Hall, an Oberlin graduate and founder of Alcoa.
[7] Observers have noted the “Oberlin spirit” – ideals of academic excellence, service, and international peace and friendship – which gave the enterprise a missionary tone and sometimes ethnocentrism (particularly in the Association's early years).