Unlocking the Chinese Realm: Apostle David O. McKay and Latter-day Saint Encounters in East Asia, 1852-1921

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Available early 2026

Book Description:

In Unlocking the Chinese Realm, historian Reid L. Neilson offers a comprehensive account of Latter-day Saint early encounters with China and its surrounding regions. Spanning from Brigham Young’s 1852 call for missionaries to Hong Kong through Apostle David O. McKay’s 1921 dedicatory prayer in Peking, the book traces nearly seventy years of evolving religious aspiration, cultural encounter, and global vision. Drawing on diaries, reports, and periodical accounts, Neilson illuminates how McKay’s prayer symbolically “turned the key” to China, consecrating the nation and its people to receive the restored gospel while reflecting broader Western attitudes toward the East at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Blending biography, theology, and global religious history, Unlocking the Chinese Realm situates McKay’s mission within a longer narrative of Latter-day Saint engagement with East Asia—from early Hawaiian and Californian contact with Chinese migrants to later apostolic rituals of dedicating lands in preparation to share the gospel. With detailed analysis and rare archival sources, Neilson reveals how McKay’s 1921 act echoed across generations of church leaders and members, shaping the faith’s hopes for China and its diaspora well into the modern era. This deeply researched study opens new perspectives on Mormonism’s international expansion and the sacred geography of global Christianity.

About the Author:

The author and award-winning editor of more than thirty books, Reid L. Neilson worked as the managing director of the Church History Department from 2010 to 2019 and was appointed Assistant Church Historian and Recorder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2015. He joined the faculty of Brigham Young University in 2022, where he currently oversees the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, the Religious Studies Center, and BYU Studies. He and his wife, Shelly, have five children and live in Bountiful, Utah.