Medical missionaries in Guangzhou: The initiators of the modern women’s rights movement in China

Abstract

Some work has been done on the medical missionaries in China, but medical education for women in Guangzhou (Canton) by missionaries has not received very much scholarly attention. This article seeks to assess their impact on Chinese women, focusing on how western male doctors broke the prohibition on Chinese women from entering public places. Thereafter, women could go to college, and the medical missionaries created a new class of women medical professionals in Canton. I argue that by making a deliberate move for social change, medical missionaries in Guangzhou initiated a significant transformation in the social status of Chinese women. They were not only agents of changes but also the initiators of the modern women’s rights movement in China.

Abstract in Chinese

虽然有些学术专者研究过西方医学传教士在中国的话动情况, 但是西方医学传教士在广州的活动情况还没有受到学者们的重视。本论文着重于研究在广州的医学传教士对中国妇女的影响。他们如何挑战中国传统对妇女的歧视, 在他们开办的医院里让外国的男医生给女病人看病。他们如何在广州开办女子医学院, 培养出中国第一批女医生, 中国的第一批医学专业人才。本文认为, 在广州的西方医学传教士不仅仅是广州妇女运动的推动者, 他们更是中国近代妇女运功的发起者和开创者。

Keywords:

• medical missionaries
• China
• women’s rights
• Guangzhou

Keywords:

• 传教士
• 妇女运动
• 广州
• 女子医学院

Notes on contributor

Guangqiu XU is chair professor of Department of History, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. He is the author of four scholar books, one of which, Congress and the U.S.-China Relationship, 1949–1979, won the 2008 Best Adult Book Award from the Chinese American Librarians Association. He also has published more than thirty articles. He received the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities Grant in 2006, the Fulbright-Hays Award in 2009, and Fulbright Scholarship Award in 2012. He was U.S. Fulbright Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore between 2012 and 2013.