The paper explores the experience of a Huntington University (Huntington College) alumnus and professor who lived and worked in China between 1920 and 1940, a tumultuous time of political revolution. The paper draws on letters, accessed through the Huntington University Archives in RichLyn Library, written from China by Lautenschlager to friends in Huntington, Indiana. The paper also draws on Lautenschlager’s published description of his face-to-face interaction in 1940 with citizens and leaders in Yenan, the de facto operational headquarters for Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Army from 1936 to 1948.