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

The ministries of health and education jointly established a National Midwifery Board
(zhuchan jiaoyu weiyuanhui 助产教育委员会) in 1929 “to promote midwifery education in the
country.” 203 According to the Vice-Minister of Health J. Heng Liu, “The realization of the
paramount importance of midwifery education at the present moment has led to the formation on
January 15 [1929] by the Ministries of Health and of Education of a National Midwifery Board.”
The board’s nine members included two representatives each from the Ministries of Health and
of Education, to hold office for two-year terms. The committee met twice yearly and also
regulated midwifery curricula and midwife registration. Its members in 1932 included: from the
Ministry of Health, Dr. J. Heng Liu and Dr. L.C. Yen (Chief of the Department of Medical
Administration); from the Ministry of Education, Mr. Wu Lai Chua (Vice Minister of Education)
and Dr. S.L. Hong (physiologist); and Honorary Members Madam Feng Yuxiang, 204 wife of the
progressive “Christian General,” Madam Chiang Kai-shek, 205 Dr. F.C. Yen (Dean of Central
University Medical School), Dr. Sun Keh-chi (Obstetrician, Red Cross Hospital, Shanghai) and
Dr. Marion Yang of the First National Midwifery School. 206 A sum of $30,000 per year was
obtained from the National Government for the promotion of midwifery education. At the first
meeting of the Midwifery Board, held on January 23, 1929, the members decided that the First
Midwifery Training School and attached hospital would be established in Beiping and approved
the plan proposed by the Beiping Midwifery Commission. 207 To help resolve the immediate
203 Liu, "The Chinese Ministry of Health," 139, Nianjian bianzuan weiyuanhui Neizhengbu, Neizheng Nianjian
(Yearbook of Internal Affairs), vol. 4 (Shanghai: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1936), G303-04.
204 Mrs. Feng Yuxiang had opened a midwifery school in Kaifeng, Honan, in 1927 or 1928, which had “taught her
the necessity for trained personnel.” Grant, letter to Dr. Victor Heiser, 1928.
205 I have been unable to find any information about Madame Chiang’s involvement in the NMB, other than that she
was an honorary member. An interesting side note is that Dr. Marion Yang and Madame Chiang did not see eye-toeye:
According to John B. Grant, Yang “could not cope with either Madame’s superficialities or the vagaries of her
entourage” Bullock, An American Transplant, 194, n.12.
206 "First Annual Report, First National Midwifery School (hereafter FNMS), 1929-1931," (Beiping: First National
Midwifery School, 1931), iii.
207 Liu, "The Chinese Ministry of Health," 140.
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