This study discusses the role American doctors played in promoting modern medical transformation in Canton and in China as a whole. The book focuses on medical missionaries' ideas, the methods they used to diffuse their medical technology in Canton, and the outcomes of their approaches. Although some historians say that the medical missionaries did not have much impact, the author argues that American missionaries instituted a model of medical work that is preserved in Guangdong Province today, with rural dispensaries, small hospitals in local cities, and the larger hospitals in Canton. The book also analyzes the relationship between Western medicine and the Cantonese reformers who first started the modern reform movement in China in the late 19th century, concentrating on three major movements: women's rights, the modern charitable movement, and modern hygiene campaigns in Canton. A glossary is included. Xu is professor of history at Friends University. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Traditional Chinese medicine developed over thousands of years, but changes introduced from 1835-1935 by American missionary doctors initiated a landslide of cultural revolution in the city of Canton and medical modernization throughout China. Focusing on medical missionaries' ideas and approaches in a principal city of the period, Canton, Guangqiu Xu, a native of Canton, describes the long-term impact of American models of medical work, which are still in place in China today.
Despite stiff resistance to change and Chinese suspicion of foreign ideas, the impact of American medical missionaries was profound. They opened medical schools, trained modern doctors, and promoted public health education. These transformations in turn led to major social movements in the modernization of Canton, such as the women's rights movement, modern charity and welfare systems, and modern hygiene campaigns.
This book focuses on the changes American doctors brought to Canton, their implementation, what remains of their influence today, and how some of these transformations have spread across China. It shows that the Chinese have themselves become more responsive to cultural relations with the US as part of the acceptance of these changes, and demonstrates how the unique blend of modern Western and traditional Chinese medicines has helped modernize China and make Canton the cradle of modern reform and revolution in China.
