[3] Allen also published several newspapers and magazines as a form of both evangelism and education, which influenced many Chinese reformers of the Self-Strengthening Movement and prompted philosophical discussions comparing Christianity and Confucianism.

[4] His publications were popular among many Chinese for their attention to Western concepts of international relations, economics and the natural sciences.

His father left him a comfortable patrimony which was managed well by William Norsworthy, the guardian chosen by his parents.

Although the families, his own and his foster parents, were members of the Primitive Baptist Church, Young Allen came under Methodist influence and in 1853 was converted and at the same time felt himself called to the Christian ministry.

[8] On Dec. 18, 1859 Young and Mary Allen and their infant daughter, Mellie, sailed from New York and on July 13, 1860, reached Shanghai.

[5] From 1861 to 1866 while he was cut off from his church at home by the American Civil War, he worked as a coal and rice broker, a cotton buyer, teacher, editor and translator.

Nevertheless, on May 18, 1881, he announced his withdrawal after "an almost consecutive service of nearly eighteen years, in connection with the Educational, Editorial, and Translation Departments of the Government Institution here Shanghai," in order to devote his full-time to the work of Superintendent to which he succeeded when Rev.

In 1883 he purchased land for the site of the Anglo-Chinese College which he served as president from its opening in 1885 until his resignation in 1895 because of impaired health.

He was instrumental in founding the McTyeire Home and School,[10] (McTyeire School for Girls, where the Soong sisters attended before they attended Wesleyan College) which opened in 1892 with Miss Laura Haygood, sister of his old friend and Emory classmate, Atticus Haygood, as its head.

The list of Young's literary productions includes about 250 volumes of original and translated works, published under the auspices of the Methodist Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese (S.D.C.K.)

He founded and edited the monthly Wan Guo Gong Bao, or Review of the Times from 1868 to 1907, a paper "said...to have done more for reform than any other single agency in China."

During the First Sino-Japanese War period of 1894–1895, essay titles included: "International Intercourse, by a descendent of Confucius," "How to Enrich a Nation, by Dr. Joseph Edkins," "The Prime Benefits of Christianity, by the Rev.