Peiyang Women's Hospital
Tientsin, China.
April 28th, 1937My dear Miss Turner:
It has done me much good to attend our Medical Association Conference at Shanghai in April. The program was good in every respect. During the confernce [sic] four large buildings were dedicated, one large medical school for four hundred students, one university hospital of five hundred beds, one municipal hospital of five hundred beds, and a most uptodate [sic] research laboratory. From what we see China is indeed going ahead in progress especially in science. There were one thousand doctors from different parts of China. Travel is so easy now. One can go from province to province on highways by buses or private automobiles. One can also use air line from one end of China to another end of the country. There is new life very where one can see it and one really can feel or smell it [in] the atmosphere. I have never seen so many uniformed students as I have seen this time at Shanghai and her surrounding cities. In priamry schools boys and girsl are all in overalls. In middle schools you see boys and girls are drilled alike. In colleges you see men and women are working side by side in laboratories and libraries. Every youth wants a training and every youth wants to render service to our country. There is national pride which was not known in our childhood. Children study so many more subjects also. They certainly know more than our days. I can recall my time in high school. We never heard anything about Vesalius Harvey, Pasteur, Koch. Now our high school students can tell you much about these men. Even in primary schools they study science. They have what they call science readers and they study something about everything. In that way they learn the back ground of science. I noticed that in science readers for Mary Jean and Abby. They are studying about osmotic pressure, colloids, noncolloids, condictivity [sic]. serface [sic] tension, static etc. These terms were unknwo [sic] to me until I got to college in America. At that time I really did not have equivalent terms in Chinese at all. All scientific terms are put in ourown [sic] language now. Children do understand what they are studying. There are so many translations now. Many college text books are in Chinese now. By the way we can also get Howard's Physiology in Chinese.
After my two weeks at Shanghai I feel very much refreshed for my work here. For sometime I felt little bit annoyed by that lawsuit which is now a passing cloud. I met many interesting perons [sic] at this conference. Our hospital is getting to be well known and for the first time Ho Pei Medical College wants to send their students to us for internship. He Pei Nursing School wants to send their pupil nurses to our hospital for affliation [sic]. All these are signs for encouragement and we must work harder to improve our work. It is really good to get away. At a hospital in Shanghai I saw a very simple apparatus for blood transfusion. We like indirect method but the drawing from the donor is rather a task at times. Now we have gotten a tube that one can suck it and draw the blood from the donor's arm. After the blood is drawn the same doctor can give this blood to the recipient. This simple apparatus will save work and personel [sic]. I learned also much about Birth Control which is a very urgent problem in China. Then ofcourse [sic] I had a good time with myown [sic] people and friends at Shanghai. I visited my old school McTyiere and her teachers. Some of my teachers are still there. It was a pleasure to see them for they gave me the foundation for further study. In my high school days very few would go abroad for study. McTyiere was fortunate to have a progressive principal who gave her students a good curriculum. But now all schools must come to certain standard or else government would not grant diplomas to their students. All college students must pass government examinations before admission to colleges. All these chnages [sic] are signs of growth and I am happy for every change. Sometimes I do feel our children have too many studies but I guess this must be so for we are going thru experimental stage.
Soon you will have your vacation. Where are you going this summer? What are you going to do? We are thinking about your celebration. The last we heard that Madame Chinag [sic] may fly over to America. She deserves every honor. In travelling from province one cannot help but see progress under General Chiang. He has done much for our country. My nephew will come to America this fall for agriculture. He will be at Berrien Springs near his sister. I hope this letter finds you in good health. With love from all.
Yours lovingly,
Me-Iung