The first Western-style hospital in China was the Canton Hospital, better known as the Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton. It was founded by Peter Parker (1804–1888), at Factory No. 7, Fung-taihong San-taulan (Green Pea) Street, a site near the foreign-owned factories in Canton (now known as Guangzhou), on November 4, 1835. During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), Canton was the only place trade could be undertaken between European and Chinese merchants. The trade monopoly ended after the first Opium War (1839–1842), which had begun in response to the attempt of the Qing government to halt the illegal smuggling of opium by foreign, mainly English, ships in Canton. The failures of the Qing government during the war not only allowed the English to resume drug trafficking within China but also paved the way for the opening of lucrative Chinese markets to business people and of Chinese society to missionaries.

During the past 176 years, the first Western-style hospital in China, the Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton, has survived and thrived; it has become the leading ophthalmic institute in the country and one of the largest and most prestigious in the world. Currently, 724 staff members, including 170 ophthalmologists, work in the center.

Deborah Matilda Douw (1835-1911) funded and took part in missionary work in China. In 1900 she was caught up in the Boxer Rebellion. In 1869, Douw made her first visit to China on behalf of the Women's Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands (WUMS). She went to Beijing with two other women to open a boarding school for girls. In 1881 the mission was moved to Shanghai at which time a day-school was added to the facility. WUMS was one of the first organizations to permit single women to carry out this type of missionary work. These schools played an important role, working with women in situations where the presence of male missionaries would be inappropriate or forbidden.

Douw returned several times to China to continue her work, and she set up a fund with the Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America for evangelistic work in Shanghai called the Douw Foundation. This supported two missionaries, a bible school and women teachers. She also funded her own Christian Alliance Mission in Beijing. In addition, Douw funded the building of a female pavilion at the Peking Presbyterian Hospital and paid for the attendance of a female doctor. In 1900 she was at the mission during the Boxer Rebellion when she and other missionaries were trapped in the foreign legations. Though they were eventually rescued by a combined international force of troops and she returned to America, she never fully recovered from this experience and died in 1911.

With time the expansion and growth of hospitals in China during the 1800s became more widely accepted. By 1937 there were 254 mission hospitals in China, but more than half of these were eventually destroyed by Japanese bombing during World War II or otherwise due to the Second Sino-Japanese War or the Chinese Civil War. After World War II most of these hospitals were at least partially rehabilitated, and eventually passed to the control of the Government of the Peoples' Republic of China, but are still functioning as hospitals.

Discussion Questions

• 1. What was interesting to you about this article?

  2. Are there many hospitals in your hometown? How old are they and have they grown, shrunk, or reduced their size in recent years?

  3. Do you have any historical figures or famous medical examiners who you can tell us about?

  4. Have you ever heard about mission work happening (past or currently) in your country?