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

critical of the quality of the Chinese medical personnel who ran them. They began to close in the
late 1920s. 165 Regulations for special medical schools (yixue zhuanmen xuexiao 医学专门学校)
were also enacted. The course of study was for four years preceded by one year of premedical
and more than one year of postgraduate studies. 166 In 1912, medicine was divided into the fields
of medicine and pharmacy, and premedical courses were required for admission to either. In
1917, the medical course of study was raised from four to five years. 167
The 1921 and 1922 Conferences of Provincial Educational Associations, held in Canton
and Jinan, respectively, restructured the educational system and included provisions for four-year
National Technical Colleges. Co-education was allowed and was common in the lower primary
grades. Several national colleges adopted co-education, though in practice upper primary and
middle schools were still sex segregated. 168 Even in national co-ed colleges and universities, the
number of female students was very small; for example, there were 11 female and 2,246 male
students at the National University of Peking in 1923. 169 The conference members also
encouraged the creation of more Elementary and Secondary Vocational Schools for girls, which
were on the same standing as girls’ Normal Schools. 170 Vocational Colleges included specialty
curricula in midwifery, nursing, and medicine, as well as in business and handiwork like
embroidery and dressmaking. The number of girls’ Vocational Schools grew from 21 in 1916 to
158 in 1922. Most of these were private institutions. In 1923, the Joint Conference of Education
and Industry in Jiangsu passed a resolution to establish a Provincial Girls’ Vocational School. 171
165
Lucas, Chinese Medical Modernization, 68.
166
Choa, "Heal the Sick," 96.
167
Ibid.
168
Tao, "Medical Education of Chinese Women," 74.
169
Tang, "Woman's Education in China," 24.
170
Ibid., 5. In addition to the adjustments noted, the system was changed to six years of elementary school, three
years of junior middle school, three years of senior middle school, and four years of college.
171
Ibid., 20.
68