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

depending upon the ward (private, semi-private, public). 125 The Margaret Williamson Hospital
merged with St. John’s University in 1935. 126
The Xiangya (Hsiang-ya) Medical College and Hospital in Changsha, Hunan, opened in
1913 under an agreement between the Yale Mission and a group of gentry called the Hunan Yu
Chun Educational Association (HYCEA) that had the support of the provincial government.
This agreement “was the first instance of extensive cooperation in the educational and medical
fields between Chinese and foreigners.” 127 The Yale Mission had originated medical work in
Hunan in 1908, and all existing institutions were absorbed into Xiangya after 1913. Along with
the College and Hospital was an affiliated School of Nursing and a department to train nurses in
obstetrics. Most of the nursing students were male until 1929. In 1913, 400 men and 120
women applied to the school. Male students did their practicums at a nearby Red Cross Hospital,
while the women went to the Yale hospital for women. The government donated a Chinese
building for the Medical College, and a new hospital building was erected across the street with
Yale Mission funds. Clinical work and nurse training for men and women were transferred to
the new Xiangya Hospital. During World War I, it was difficult for the hospital to secure
Western physicians and other staff, and the institution was in financial trouble. However, “it was
an encouraging proof of the steadfast loyalty of the local gentry to the cause, that on several
occasions, ever at their own financial loss, they raised the funds necessary to maintain the work
and to put up a new medical college building on their own campus in 1919.” The new building
housed teaching facilities and a medical student dormitory. 128 The administration of the hospital
125
H.G.W. Woodhead, ed., The China Yearbook 1935 (Shanghai: The North China Daily News and Herald, Ltd.,
1935), Appendix III.
126
Choa, "Heal the Sick," Tao, "Medical Education," 74.
127
Reuben Holden, Yale in China: The Mainland 1901-1951 (New Haven: The Yale in China Association, Inc.,
1964), 124.
128
K.Y. Wang, "A Report of Hsiang-Ya Medical College & Hospital," 1930, RAC, series 601A, RG1.
57