Health and society in China: Public health education for the community, 1912–1937

Abstract

The paper studies the public health education activities of the American medical missionaries, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Nationalist government, and the Mass Education Movement in China during 1912–1937. It argues that the mission-oriented policies of the medical missionaries as well as the ‘technique’ approaches of the Rockefeller Foundation which were adopted by the majority of the health officials of the Nationalist government were inappropriate in an agrarian country like China. The Mass Education Movement, by combining health education with the improvement of the living conditions of the people as a whole, proved to be quite successful although it too failed to utilize the traditional medical system in public health activities.