1. Jin Yamei: The first female student in China
In the long river of history, there are always some people, their light is like stars, even if they cross the boundaries of time and space, they still shine. Jin Yamei, the first Chinese female student, is the most brilliant one. The trajectory of her life is like a magnificent picture, full of legends.
In 1881, when a passenger ship set sail from Tokyo to New York, there was a young woman on board, she was Jin Yamei. At the age of seventeen, she embarked on this path of study with a longing for the unknown world and a thirst for knowledge. She has a delicate face, black hair and yellow skin, which is particularly striking in a foreign country.
Jin Yamei's childhood was not happy. At the age of two and a half, she suffered the first blow of her life when her parents died of the plague. However, fate did not stop there. Under the tutelage of her father's former friend, Dr. McCardi, and his wife, she was able to complete secondary school in Japan and master both Japanese and English. Seeing her intelligence and diligence, Dr. McCardy decided to send her to the United States for further study, choosing medicine as her specialty.
During her study career in the United States, Jin Yamei showed amazing perseverance and talent. She entered the prestigious New York Hospital Women's Medical University and became the only Chinese student at the school. She studied hard and hard, not only studied book knowledge, but also diligent in operating experiments, and her grades have always been among the best. Four years passed quickly, and in May 1885 she graduated first in her class.
After graduating, Jin Yamei made a name for herself in the medical field in the United States. She interned in a number of hospitals in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., and quickly achieved remarkable results with her solid theoretical knowledge and superb medical skills. Her academic report "A Study of Microscopy Camera Energy" was published in the New York Medical Journal, which attracted the attention of her peers in the medical field. However, she has not forgotten her roots in China, and that attachment to her homeland and sense of responsibility have always lingered in her heart.
At the end of 1888, Jin Yamei resolutely returned to the motherland and worked in a church hospital in Xiamen, Fujian. She gave her medical knowledge unreservedly to the land and its people. She is well aware of the backwardness of maternal and infant medical conditions in China, and it is urgent to train professional medical personnel. So, in 1908, she persuaded Yuan Shikai to set up the Beiyang Women's Medical Hall with 20,000 taels of silver from Tianjin Customs. This is the first public nursing school in mainland China, which has trained the first batch of nursing talents for modern China.
On the road of practicing medicine and education, Jin Yamei has always adhered to the spirit of rigor, dedication and benevolence. She not only imparts advanced medical knowledge and technology from the West, but also pays attention to cultivating students' moral character and sense of responsibility. She advocated women's emancipation and encouraged women to participate in social services, making outstanding contributions to the cause of women in China.
However, Jin Yamei's life was not all smooth sailing. She had experienced failed marriages and the loss of a child, but those setbacks did not break her. Instead, she devotes all her energy to medicine and education, interpreting the value and meaning of life with her actions.
In her later years, Jin Yamei still maintained her enthusiasm for life and work. She is actively involved in various charitable activities and is passionate about education and rural health. In her spare time, she often takes a group of people to volunteer at the orphanage and raises funds for the orphanage. Her kindness and benevolence deeply infected the people around her and enriched her life.
In March 1934, Jin Yamei died in Union Hospital at the age of 70. Her life was short, but it was legendary. She is the first female student in China and an outstanding representative of modern Chinese medicine and women's cause. She has written a glorious chapter in history with her talent and hard work, and has also left valuable wealth and inspiration for future generations.
Jin Yamei's story tells us: no matter what kind of situation you are in, we must maintain our thirst for knowledge and love for life; No matter how many difficulties and setbacks you encounter, you must stick to your beliefs and pursuits; No matter how many accomplishments and honors you have, maintain humility and love. Only in this way can we be like Jin Yamei and shine our own light on the road of life.
2. Xu Jinjian: China's first international female representative, outstanding contributor to the field of medicine
In 1884, when most Chinese women were still bound to the boudoir by tradition, a Fuzhou girl named Xu Jinjian bravely embarked on the journey to the United States to study. She not only became China's first international female representative, but also made outstanding achievements in the field of medicine, leaving a valuable legacy for future generations.
Xu Jinjian was born in 1866 in a Christian family on Nantai Island (now Cangshan) in Fuzhou. Her father's open-mindedness and staunch opposition to his daughter's foot binding laid the foundation for her later modern education. After studying at Yuying Girls' School, Xu Jinjian switched to Fuzhou Women's Hospital to study medicine because he was dissatisfied with the curriculum. Her talent and ambition were appreciated by the director of the hospital, who won her the opportunity to study in the United States.
In the United States, Xu studied English in Philadelphia, then went to Wesleyan University and then transferred to Philadelphia Women's Medical University. With perseverance, she overcame language and cultural barriers, mastering not only advanced medical knowledge, but also fluent in spoken English. This study abroad experience laid a solid foundation for her to showcase Chinese women on the international stage in the future.
In 1895, Xu Jinjian returned to his hometown and practiced medicine at the Fuzhou Shengjiao Women's and Children's Hospital. With a focus on women and children, she is not only highly skilled, but also compassionate and responsible. She pioneered the use of running water in hospitals, built new toilets, and promoted hygiene in an effort to improve people's health. Her efforts were widely recognized, and the hospital quickly became overcrowded.
Xu Jinjian not only treats patients, but also devotes himself to training a new generation of female doctors. She has developed courses and imparted medical knowledge, and has cultivated a large number of talents for the medical industry in China. Many of her students went on to become famous doctors.
In 1910, Hsu's alma mater, Wesleyan University, awarded her a Master of Science degree in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of medicine. In the same year, she participated in the World Women's Association Congress held in London, England as a representative of Chinese women. This is the first time that a Chinese woman has appeared on the international stage, and Xu Jinjian has demonstrated the grace and strength of Chinese women with her fluent English and profound knowledge.
In 1926, he resigned as dean and went to Nanyang, where he died three years later at the age of 64 in Singapore. She was never married and had no children, but she dedicated all the love of her heart to the cause of medicine and her patients. Xu Jinjian's life is full of legends, she is not only the first international female representative of China, but also an outstanding contributor to the field of medicine. Her story will forever inspire future generations to pursue knowledge and scale new heights.
3. Kang Aide: Break the spell of fate
Born in 1873 in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, to a modest family, Kang Aide was given by her parents to a neighbor's child bride because she already had five girls. Unexpectedly, the neighbor invited a fortune teller to tell her fortune, and the result was that the girl was destined to commit a tengu and her marriage was unfavorable, so the neighbor did not dare to accept her. When the family was at a loss, a neighbor who was a Chinese teacher for Western missionaries suggested that Kang's parents give her to the female missionary he taught for adoption. In this way, the American missionary Ms. Hogg adopted a baby girl, who was only two months old at the time, and gave her the English name Ida Kahn. Since then, Xiaokang Ed has grown up beside Ms. Hogg and her colleague Ms. Wu Geju, and embarked on a life path that is very different from that of Chinese ordinary women.
At the age of nine, he followed Ms. Hogg to San Francisco, where he learned English. Later, she returned to China and lived in Chongqing with Ms. Wu Geju for two years. In 1886, when the anti-religious movement broke out in Chongqing, the church compound was razed to the ground, and the missionaries took refuge in the governor's yamen, where Kang Aide hid for two months in a carpenter's house, and then they found an opportunity to escape from Chongqing. At that time, the ice and snow melted in the spring, and the Three Gorges River was very fast, and 13-year-old Xiaokang Aide crossed the choppy Yangtze River in a small boat, and her life was once again reversed.
In 1892, Ms. Wu Geju brought three boys and two girls to the United States, namely Kang Aide and her classmate Shi Meiyu when she was a student at the Jiujiang Church Girls' School. They successfully passed the entrance exam and entered the University of Michigan Medical School. In school, they are among the best in all categories. At the graduation ceremony, two girls wore Chinese cheongsams on stage to receive their graduation certificates, Kang Aide's cheongsam was blue, Shi Meiyu's was pink, people stood up for them and applauded them for a long time, and the principal praised them in public: "It is useless to say that the person of Zhina, and the ability of the other person is beyond my ability." If this lady is proportional to my beautiful daughter, I am ashamed!"
In 1896, Kang Aide and Shi Meiyu returned to China after completing their studies, and when they went ashore at the Jiujiang Wharf, they were warmly welcomed, and the sound of firecrackers was endless along the way, and people wanted to see these two young female doctors who had returned from abroad. Three days later, they underwent several surgeries at the request of the local hospital, which were very successful and made a name for themselves. By the end of their second year of practice, they had treated 5,491 patients, turned over all their earnings to the Church treasury, and used four years of practice to compensate for the cost of attending school in the United States.
At that time, Zhang Zhidong wrote to Wu Geju, imploring Kang Aide and Shi Meiyu to teach at the medical normal school he was founding in Shanghai, but they did not accept the invitation because they felt that they could play a greater role in staying in Jiujiang. Once, when the governor of Nanchang sent a boat to Jiujiang and asked for a doctor to be sent to see his wife, Kang Aide immediately set off and brought the patient back to Jiujiang to take care of him. After the governor's wife recovered, the two female doctors were widely publicized, and Kang Aide took the opportunity to set up a hospital in Nanchang, and gradually expanded the scale, receiving more than 8,000 patients in 1907 alone. During the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and the Northern Expedition in 1926, the hospital also treated a large number of wounded refugees.
In 1896, Liang Qichao once published an article in the "Shi Ji Bao", praising Kang Aide's achievements, which also led to a lace news: Liu He, the author of "The Travels of the Old Disabled", read Liang Qichao's "Jiangxi Kang Lady", and couldn't help but be fascinated, and learned from the report of "Declaration" that she was "still waiting to be in the boudoir", so Toro Zhenyu wrote to Wang Kangnian and Liang Qichao, asking them to "be ice people" and wanted to marry her.
In 1899, as a well-known female intellectual at that time, Kang Aide represented China at the meeting of the World Association of Women. After 1907, at the age of 34, Kang Aide went abroad again, studying literature at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago in the United States, and studying medicine in a tropical hospital in the United Kingdom. Four years later, he returned to Nanchang and continued to work as a medical practitioner until his death in 1931.
4. Shi Meiyu: Selfless doctor, eternal love
Shi Meiyu, an outstanding woman born in Huangmei, Hubei Province and raised in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, is intimately associated with the benevolence of a selfless healer. As the daughter of a pastor, she received the education of the church girls' school since she was a child, went to the United States to study with Kang Aide, and returned to China to practice medicine together after completing her studies, winning the trust and respect of the people of Jiangxi with her exquisite medical skills.
In the face of many patients who came to visit, Shi Meiyu was not satisfied with the status quo. She wrote to friends in the United States asking for donations to expand the clinic. As a result of her efforts, Dr. I.N. Danforth, a famous doctor in Chicago, funded the establishment of Danford Hospital (also known as Jiujiang Women's and Children's Hospital) in China. Shi Meiyu not only served as the dean, but also wrote textbooks, translated English medical books, and imparted medical knowledge. Under her auspices, the hospital gradually grew and the number of patients received increased significantly.
Shi Meiyu's medical skills and love are far spread, she not only enjoys a high reputation in China, but also goes to the United States for further study many times and communicates with the international medical community. During her stay in the United States, she not only actively raised funds to support China's medical cause, but also introduced the situation in China to the American church and encouraged Chinese students to return to China to serve.
In 1920, after returning to China, Shi Meiyu co-founded the Bethel Church and Bethel Hospital with Wu Geju, and opened a pharmacy and nursing school. She adopted 36 poor Chinese children and taught them herself. She has also trained medical students from all over the country, including those from Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, and Honolulu. Under her guidance, these students go deep into the civil service and spread medical knowledge to a wider field.
During the great famine in Shandong, Shi Meiyu adopted 100 orphans and established an orphanage to provide them with education and living security. When these orphans grew up, many chose to study abroad and follow in her footsteps to serve their motherland.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Bethel Hospital was forcibly occupied by the Japanese army, Shi Meiyu resolutely moved the hospital to Huxi, and sent medical staff to the refugee shelter and the hospital for the wounded and sick to carry out voluntary rescue work. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, she actively planned funds in the United States to rebuild Bethel Hospital. In 1951, she asked the Shanghai Municipal Government to take over the hospital, which was eventually renamed the Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital.
Shi Meiyu is a beautiful woman who has never married, and she has dedicated her most beautiful years to her beloved medical career and patients. Her love and dedication will always be engraved in people's hearts. On December 30, 1954, Shi Meiyu died in California, USA, at the age of 81. Although her life is over, her spirit and love will live on forever.