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

Bethel trained nurse-evangelists to return permanently to their hometowns to provide
medical care and proselytize. Their training focused on public health and hygiene, and probably
aseptic deliveries, and focused on bringing heatlh care to the masses. Nurses were to act as
purveyors of modern medicine to provide care for the whole community. The nurses also held
weekly public health meetings in Shanghai. Many of these, mainly on hygiene, sanitation, and
vaccination, were directed at women who in turn could shape others’ perceptions and eventually
affect the state of health of the entire country. 484
Other less well-known Chinese women physicians trained in the United States are Jin
Yamei (Y. May King金韵梅) and Cao Liyun. Little information is available on these women,
but we do know that they trained medical personnel in their hospitals. Jin Yamei was the
adopted daughter of medical missionary Dr. Divie Bethune McCartee of Ningbo and the first
Chinese female to graduate from an American medical school, the Women’s Medical College of
the New York Infirmary in 1885. 485 After traveling for many years in the United States and
Europe, and then working with the Reformed Church in Amoy, in 1907 she opened a nursing
school and hospital at the East Gate in Tianjin City with a 20,000 tael grant from Viceroy Yuan
Shikai. According to Peabody, “The Viceroy of Chili was anxious for her to start a medical
school, but she said she could not do that but would start a hospital and training school for
nurses. She began in an old Chinese house which was once used for a children’s home.” 486 The
hospital was called the Peiyang (Beiyang) Hospital for Women and Children, and the school was
484 Shemo, "'An Army of Women,'" 454.
485 Balme, China and Modern Medicine, Tao, "Medical Education of Chinese Women."
486 Francis W. Peabody, "Visit to Peiyang Hospital for Women and Children: Tientsin," 1914, folder 322, box 19,
series 1, RG 4, RAC.
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