Routledge American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835-1935

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. Review -This pioneering work explores the role US medical missionaries played in the establishment of a modern medical care and educational system in Canton, China, in the 19th and early-20th centuries. Canton was the only city open to foreign trade in the early-19th century, and was also where the first US doctors of the medical missionary movement came to advance Christianity in China. By providing modern medical care and education to the native Chinese in Canton, US doctors seemed to be less successful in their religious missions, but much more successful in helping the Cantonese establish the first hospitals of modern Western medicine, first medical and nursing schools, first public health programs, first women's health and rights programs, and first modern charitable and philanthropic programs and organizations. The Chinese doctors and nurses trained in these health institutions and organizations subsequently played a significant role in China's medical modernization as well as in political and social reforms and revolutions. Similar to an -archaeological excavation,- the author's research digs out abundant but long-buried valuable literature about the early medical history of both China and the US. Excellent scholarship... Highly recommended.- --A. Y. Lee, CHOICE -Xu is an indefatigable researcher who employs rich detail to drive broad and consequential conclusion . . . [American Doctors in Canton] is a fascinating tale of American missionary-physicians and their impact on the health and well-being of individual Chinese, as well as on a broader body politic and body social. . . . This book is highly recommended to all those interested not just in medicine and medical practices, but to the transmission of medical betterments across the globe, to the role of medicine in cultural exchange and modernization in China (and elsewhere).- --Clifford M. Foust, professor emeritus of history, University of Maryland, College Park -A meeting of knowledge is a great advancement of knowledge. American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835-1935 discusses the meeting of medicinal philosophies as China welcomed western physicians and brought about massive amount of change in China in the avenue of not just being medicine, but various other parts of society as well. Canton served as the center of this revolution, and discusses its movements through history. From the forming of the first Cantonese hospital in the early nineteenth century, the rise of medicinal education, social change, and much more. Am