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BUILDING THE NATION THROUGH WOMEN'S HEALTH: MODERN ...

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included Dingxian (see Chapter Two), the YWCAs of Wuchang (Hubei province) and Wujiang<br />

(Anhui province), Yenching University’s Department of Sociology, the Local Gentry<br />

Association of Yutian (Hebei province), the Taixian County Government (Jiangsu province), the<br />

Nanjing Municipal Government, and the Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provincial Governments. Marion<br />

Yang made preliminary investigations of local conditions in each of these areas and drew up<br />

tentative plans for improving these locales’ maternal and child health. Yang helped to create and<br />

open the Central National Midwifery School in Nanjing modeled on the FNMS (see Chapter<br />

Two), of which she was director for the first three months of its existence. She also gave<br />

technical assistance to numerous other fledgling maternal and child health programs around the<br />

country, such as provincial programs in Jiangxi and Jiangsu, and municipal programs like<br />

Gaoqiao Public Health Model Village in Shanghai. Yang was also very interested in improving<br />

maternal and child health in the countryside:<br />

“It has been felt that, considering the present state of China, we give too<br />

thorough training to maternity and child health officers and workers.<br />

However, if we consider our large rural population (85%), our economic<br />

education and transportation, it becomes necessary to set up strong units in the<br />

rural centers that they may handle both physiological and pathological<br />

conditions. We can not progress by referring the pathological cases to urban<br />

hospitals.” 403<br />

In rural areas, the FNMS assisted Dingxian and Qinghe, two model mass education<br />

movement districts (see Chapter Two), as well as providing technical assistance to rural,<br />

provincial, and urban areas around the country. Between September 1933 and May 1934 alone,<br />

Yang made technical assistance visits to Shanghai (September 29-October 8), Zhenjiang and<br />

Taixian (Jiangsu province, October 30-November 2), Nanzhang and Hankou (Jiangxi province,<br />

403 Marion Yang, letter to Dr. W.A. Sawyer, Beiping, January 21, 1937, folder 374, box 45, series 601, RG 1, RAC.<br />

161

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