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

Taitai), both in their fifties, and a 60-year-old midwife. The younger generation is portrayed by
their three children in their twenties and a 22-year-old modern midwife. The play opens with the
eldest brother’s wife in labor off stage while Lao Ye and Lao Taitai pray at their family altar to
Guanyin and send for Old Midwife Wang. Their eldest daughter, Wenxin, tells them that elder
brother wants his wife to deliver in a hospital, not at home attended by a dirty (angzang肮脏)
old-style midwife. There is much arguing between the daughters and their parents (evidenced by
an overabundance of exclamation points in the text), and a great deal of worried looks, wringing
of hands, and crying. Lao Taitai says, “The jieshengpo is old and experienced. How could a
young girl know anything about childbirth?” Later, elder brother’s wife is in prolonged labor
and is too exhausted to even support herself. Younger daughter secretly calls for the new
midwife next door, who performs a caesarean section and saves both mother and baby (a son).
Another play, called “Renewal,” has a similar plot with an auntie in labor and a daughter, a high
school student, pleading with her mother to utilize a modern midwife: “Jieshengpo only know
how to scam money. They know nothing about cleanliness or disinfection.” 565 One of the
projects of the Beiping Child Health Institute and similar institutes sent public health nurses to
local schools to collect vital statistics, administer health checkups, and give vaccinations, along
with providing instruction in hygiene and sanitation. The student in this play would have
attended such a class at her high school.
These plays serve as guides for students to deal with relatives and friends of patients in
their care who are reluctant to utilize the new midwives’ training. They also provide insight into
the reasons behind the struggle between old and new midwives. The young ones could not
possibly know anything about birth, while the old ones were dirty and backward. In these texts,
565 Ibid., 25-30.
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