Filmmaker says new Hudson Taylor movie feels strikingly relevant today

A filmmaker behind an upcoming movie about pioneering missionary Hudson Taylor says he hopes the project will inspire moviegoers to model the courage and humility that drove Taylor and his wife to take the gospel to China during the 1800s amid societal turmoil.

The film, Hudson & Maria, is scheduled to begin filming in August, telling the story of Hudson and Maria Taylor and their sacrificial efforts to share the gospel with the people of inland China while embracing the local culture and customs.

Aaron Burns – a filmmaker known for his work on Overcomer, Legacy Peak and the new movie Jimmy about actor Jimmy Stewart – is producing it.

Burns noted that Taylor traveled to China in the 1850s during a period of political upheaval, foreign tension and widespread unrest following the Opium Wars, the conflicts between China and Western powers. Taylor was from England.

“He’s a fascinating character in a fascinating historical time, and as you look at our world today – our Western world, we’re dealing with the reverberations of colonialism, and this East versus West conflict,” Burns told The Lion. “Hudson went in the middle of the Opium Wars, in the middle of Great Britain doing all of these awful things through its empire – but he felt God’s call to go and share the love of Jesus with the people in China.

“And he said, ‘I’m going to carry the kingdom of God and God’s light and love into this place in a very unique way.’”

Taylor was a pioneer not only in missionary work but also in cultural immersion, famously adopting Chinese clothing and customs in an effort to better connect with the people he hoped to reach with the gospel.

“He pioneered – or at least popularized – a concept that’s just become very normal to missionaries today, which is integrating as much as you can with the local people,” Burns said. “At the time, [other] British missionaries would kind of expect people to convert to Britishism and Westernism, along with converting to Christianity.”

Taylor, though, realized his Western appearance and customs could become barriers to the gospel.

“So he cut off his hair and grew a queue and dressed [like Chinese people] and diligently studied Chinese languages so he could become like them in all ways to share the gospel with them. And that idea, combined with his radical dependence on the Lord, and his radical just reading of the Scripture … started a mission movement that reverberates through to this day.”

Taylor founded the China Inland Mission, an organization that still exists under the name OMF International and continues sending missionaries around the globe.

“That organization still exists today, with thousands of missionaries around the globe, and a number of them connected with me and said, ‘We’d love to inspire the church in modern times to see what we could do to share the gospel.’

The goal is to “inspire a new generation of thousands of new Hudson Taylors.”

The lessons from Taylor’s life, Burns said, remain just as relevant in today’s divided world as they were in the 19th century.

“Have the courage to go where God calls you to go and do what He calls you to do, knowing that He will provide, coupled with the humility to know that you don’t have to go alone and you don’t have to do it in your own strength,” Burns said. “Hudson thrived in a very divided world that is shockingly similar to our world today. That, I think, will be inspirational.”