Tientsin, China.
September 23rd, 1936.
My dear Miss Turner:
Your most interesting letter came to me last night. I read with much pleasure. My girls are too deficient in their English otherwise I would read part of your letter to them. My nephew is able to read your post cards and explain them to his sisters. When a country is in leisure there is time for study of historical interests. A country like China is struggling for existence and we only have time for immediate needs. China is preserving her palaces, but is not doing anything toward Folk Museum. We are living at most nerve wrecking period in China. Fortunately we have lived quiet lives for centuries, otherwise; [sic] we would never be able to stand our present living. General Chinag has done wonders for our country. Here is a clipping from a foreign observer about General Chinag. He is able to put down unrest within China. But our ever agrresive [sic] neighbour is always finding fault with us and tries everyway [sic] to match us with her military strength. If China has a chance to be allowed to develop herself it would be beneficial to the whole Far East.
In North China one can see Japanese military power everywhere. The worst part is that China is not allowed to put her good officials in North China. Any one who is patriotic is considered by Japan as anti_Japanese [sic] person. For this reason the situation is very difficult. Because bad officilas [sic]have been placed in positions, so; [sic] interests of our people are not considered at all. The last mayor was interested in nothing but to line his pocket with gold. He was the one who put that Infant Asylum in hands of his politicians.
Now these politicians are giving this hospital trouble. Our hospital is built on a piece of public land and now these politicians are claiming thier [sic] right for this piece of land. But our board members will fight for the right as we have enough documents to show how we got the land. In eyes of the law they cannot claim this land. But this is rather annoying in midist [sic] of our hard work. They can cause trouble to our work but never stop our work. People here work in silence for it is of no use to show any demonstration. In silence we can help our country with construction. Even in our humble silence we work with a determination to get China on strong footing.
China is more united than ever. China is spending more money for education of her youths in one year than her past ten years put together. There are so many scholarships in high schools and universities. In fact any poor student can get government help by writing direct to bureau of education. In all our schools we are giving encouragement for scientific training. I always say we were too self efficient a century ago. If we had applied our present energy one hundred years ago China today would be a strong China.
As a people we are still too ignorant. I notice that I spend more time in my explannation [sic] to patients than time for actual work. A weeh [sic] ago two eclampasia clases came in and we had to do Ceasarean [sic] sections. I actually took half hour to talk to one husband before he would give concent [sic] for operation. I took him to the operating room and let him see one of those convulsions _ [sic] then he was willing for me to operate. It just happened two cases came about the same time. Both mothers and babies are doing well now. Now these two husbands cannot talk enough about our wonders.
I feel the whole situation of China is the same way. Many of our officials are ignorant and they can not put our country on progressive basis for they do not know anything about modern science. If our younger men have chances in government affairs I feel the progerss [sic] would be faster. Our people spent millions for patent medicine and is not spending one hundredth for scientific medicine. We are doing health work but as little in comparison as to other countries. At times I feel rather inpatient. [sic] On the other hand one does see progress in some ways.
When you take your next vacation your must come to China for play and work. I do not think that we can offer you facilities for research in fishes but we can offer work in other interested [sic] subjects. Our physiological laboratory in Peiping is doing much work on nutrition and the laboratory at Nanking is doing much work on Chinese drugs. I am interested in the problem of actual sizes of our present day generation and the psat generation. Exercise food, out door life have made differences of our boys and girls today. My conclusion is just observation but would be of interest if we go into this problem with actual measurements and weighing. Mentally I feel our present young generation is keener also. Mary Jean and Abby know more now than when I was of their age. They study more and they read more. They actually see more. So next time you must come to China for your work and play. We have many interesting problems to offer you. Dr. K. K. Chen of Eli Lilly was here to get material for research problems for his company laboratory. Dr. Chen worked on Ephedrin and various products on market now.
It is so good that you have Miss Haywood with you. Her work on the liver is interesting too. We recently had a case of obstructive jaundice and we were unable to find the cause. We have sent this patient to P. U. M. C. In fact this patient is a young girl seventeen years old. She is cechetic [sic] like a case of cancer. By the way Soo Ying Ting's father just passes away yestreday [sic] becuase [sic] of cancer of liver. Pastor Ting is very well known in China because of his work among students in early days.
I still keep up with the English lessons with Abby and Mary Jean. We can give very little time to reading English as they have so many lessons at school. Then they have little practice to do also on piano. My nephew has forty four hours recitation periods in a week. The poor boy has to study from morning till night. This year the school added three hours Japanese to an already crowded curriculum. My nephew at Tsing Hua is majoring in mathematics. He is rather disappointed not to major in Physics but he did not make the grade to major in that subject. The boy at high school makes better grades for he is quick in learning but never go into details of any subject. I as their aunt know more of their strong points and weak points than their teachers so I always tell them that I do not care for their grades except I ask them to do their best with thier [sic] ability. The same trouble is with Abby and Mary Jean. Abby studies into details of her lessons and Mary Jean just learns enough for her teachers. Abby by nature is fond of reading. With a book she is in heaven.
Jean Yang has sailed for America. She is going to Laurel School outside of Cleveland for a year of preparation. She wants to enetr [sic] Mount Holyoke College for fall of 1937 and is going to take college entrance board examinations. She finished at Keen School last summer and has assed her government examinations for university. With this extra year I think she even would be better prepared than Barbara for the last entered college without a year in preparatory school. Jean has applied for a full scholarship at Mount Holyoke College and I hope that she can get it. She is a worthy candidate for a college education. She has a possibility of entering Short College but I wish her to get into Mount Holyoke College for a better education. Barbara seems to be happy in her work. She wrote me that she was at Columbia for a course in short story writing and she wants to major in English Literature. I told her than anything is useful to our country provided she would use her education on return. Many have gotten college education but are wasting their time in ordinary living. With much love from all of us.
Yours lovingly.
Me-iung.
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