Western Medicine in a Chinese Palace: Peking Union Medical College, 1917-1951

Abstract

In the past few years most books dealing with medical practice in China have emphasized the traditional Chinese aspect and its potential lessons for the Western reader. In contrast, this most recent book by Dr. John Z. Bowers reverses the earlier trend. Long before the United States had a chance to become acquainted with Chinese medical practices, the Chinese had become familiar with Western medicine, thanks to American philanthropic, learned, and missionary societies, which founded medical schools in various parts of China. The most influential of these was the Peking Union Medical College, known all over the world as PUMC. This institution, financed by the Rockefellers, ceremoniously opened its doors in 1921. Its faculty consisted of a group of young but distinguished American and English medical scientists, many of whom were recruited from Harvard University and the Rockefeller Institute. Until it was seized by the Japanese in 1941, the PUMC