Canadian doctor made her career and life in China
Quick, name a Canadian doctor who practised in 20th century China. If you came up with the name Norman Bethune, you are better informed than most.
But wait. Another Canadian doctor travelled to China and served the Chinese people far longer than Bethune. Her name was Victoria Chung and she practised medicine in China from 1923 until her death in 1966.
Chung was born in Victoria. She was the child of a Chinese labourer who travelled to Canada to help build the transcontinental railroad and then settled on Vancouver Island. Her father, Chung Sing Noon, became a Methodist during his time in Canada, and established a successful business here. Her mother, Chung Yin Han, was a highly educated woman with some medical training herself.
Their daughter went on to successfully graduate from the University of Toronto’s medical school in 1922, the first Asian student to earn a medical degree from a Canadian school.
Chung’s medical school success was in spite of patronizing and racist attitudes she encountered in Toronto.
Impelled by her religious faith and commitment to service, Victoria Cheng signed on with the Women’s Missionary Society and began decades of medical practice in China, service she maintained while civil war, Japanese invasion and revolution swept across the country. Dr. Chung did most of her medical work among women and children in Kongmoon near Hong Kong. She maintained her practice even when Kongmoon was occupied by Japanese invaders and even in the face of political denunciation in the heady first years of the revolution.
She was later politically rehabilitated and a fine she paid after being falsely accused of embezzling hospital funds was refunded. Chung donated it to buy medical equipment for her hospital. She performed clinical work tirelessly, and she also found time to publish in medical journals and, toward the end of her life, to adopt an orphan boy and raise him as her son.
A Woman in Between is deftly authored by the University of Victoria’s John Price and Simon Fraser University’s Ningping Yu. Accessible and interesting, this one is highly recommended.