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

Provincial Hospital and Midwifery School; and old-style midwife training in Jiangsu province.
We can see here the top-down organization that the Nationalist government bodies were
attempting to exert on maternal and child health work.
In 1930, the National Health Administration (weishengshu 卫生署) was formed as part of
the reorganization of the national government. The Ministry of Health merged with the Ministry
of the Interior, and the National Health Administration assumed the former’s responsibilities. In
1935, the National Health Administration was made an independent division of the Executive
Yuan on the same level as a Ministry. Its primary work concerned legislation, supervision of
public health institutions, and registration of medical personnel. 211 The National Health
Administration was only indirectly involved in maternal and child health work. According to
Director Dr. J. Heng Liu, the National Health Administration formulated maternal and child
health programs, gave technical assistance to local institutions, lent personnel, and made
inspections and supervised other institutions. It also organized postgraduate training for
midwives and conducted a tour “enabling midwifery teachers to visit various types of work in
different parts of the country.” The National Health Administration provided financial and
personnel assistance to schools and rural health work. School health was emphasized, and the
National Health Administration provided teacher training in primary and secondary school health
education so that ideas of public health were spread throughout China’s public schools. 212 Liu’s
national model for “state medicine” was applied directly to maternal and child health, “this being
211 J. Heng Liu, "National Health Organization," in The China Christian Yearbook, 1936-37, ed. Frank Rawlinson
(Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1937), 337.
212 Ibid., 345-46.
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