Introduction and development of modern western medicine into Chaoshan (Chaozhou-Shantou)area

Abstract

Shantou was opened officially in 1861. Willian Gauld, a doctor of British Presbyterian arrived in Shantou in 1863 topractisemedicine and missionary work, and set up the Medical Missionary Hospital. Since then, western medicine began to enter the Chaoshan area. Hereafter, the American Baptists, the Japanese Hakuai Society and the French Catholic Church also entered successively into the Chaoshan area, and the hospitals of western medicine were founded. At the same time, local organizations and individuals of the Chaoshan area also established western medical institutions. Chaoshan people had certain resistance to the transmission of Western medicine, which was obviously less than other places of the mainland. The reasons included not only the church hospital taking some measures to win the people's support, providing human health services, as well as the superiority of western medicine itself, but also the shortage of doctors and medicine in the Chaoshan area and thepeople's tolerance for foreign things. In addition to the provision of medical services in the hospital, the church hospital also set up medical education and trained a group of local medical talents. Although western medicine served as the pioneer of western religion into the Chaoshan area, it also brought advanced medical ideals, technology, equipment, and medical system, laying down the foundation for the development of western medicine in Chaoshan area.