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

and college continued jointly by the Yale Mission and the HYCEA. The Medical College Board
consisted of 20 people chosen by the HYCEA, while the Hospital Board was comprised of 12
people, six each selected by the Yale Mission and the HYCEA.
The Kung Yee Society (Gongyiyuan 公医院) was established in Canton by Dr. Paul
Todd of the Presbyterian Mission with substantial donations from local influential Chinese. In
1909, after the Presbyterian Mission declined to fund a men’s medical school at the Canton
Hospital, Dr. Todd enlisted 50 Chinese men who gave $100 each to fund a school and act as a
committee. The Kung Yee Society began with Mr. Pan Peiru (潘佩如, Cantonese Poon Pui Yue)
as President. The medical school for men was started in 1909 with 42 students and 13 teachers,
and a nursing program began in 1911. 129 In 1912, the local government gave Kung Yee 20 acres
outside the city for new buildings, and the Society received $11,000 in private gifts the same
year. The directors of the school and hospital were all Chinese. There were 24 faculty members,
including four foreign medical men. The rest were Chinese: one educated in Edinburgh, one in
Fort Worth, two in Japan, four in Tianjin, and 12 in Canton. In 1912, there were 120 male and
37 female students, and by 1914, 50 of the 115 students were female. A Rockefeller report
claimed that “the requirements for admission are low – a knowledge of Chinese, some
geography, history, and arithmetic …It is hoped that graduation from a middle school may in
time be the standard.” 130 The hospital had 60 beds, the average student fee was $100 per year,
and instruction was in Chinese. 131
By 1914, Kung Yee had over 150 medical students, including some women, and a small
hospital and dispensary on the Bund in Canton. A large parcel of land at the east gate and
129
Cadbury and Jones, At the Point of a Lancet, 184, Esper and Bovaird, "Medical Education," Wong and Wu,
History of Chinese Medicine.
130
Rockefeller Foundation, Medicine in China, 26-27.
131 Ibid.
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