Peiyang Woman's Hospital
Tientsin, ChinaMy dear Miss Turner;
This is our Easter holiday and I do not expect too many patients in my office this afternoon. While I am waiting for my patients I would also talk to you. If I have wings I would certainly fly to Denmark to have a heart to heart talk with you. There are many probems concerning this little hospital. Since coming home I have been very busy but I feel tired so easily. Physically I feel well but I do not seem to be able to stand the strain any longer. I can no longer stand much night work. Our little hospital is doing so well and our work has improved much in quality. Your two good letters came and I was glad to know your life at Copenhagen and your plan for this coming summer. I understand everything perfectly well. To be a resident in another country is certainly not a time for saving. I have had this experience recently myself. By the time I reached Shanghai I even did not have fund to come to Tientsin. I hope that in the near future you would be able to pay me a visit while I am in my active work. I want you also come to see your little name sake while she is so cute. Soon she would be a grown up young girl. Mary Jean is delightful in her ways. Abby is going to be a student someday. She gets her lessons too easily. Mary Jean is good in her studies also but not so naturally talented. Both are growning and becoming stronger day by day, I am practicing my Pediatrics upon them. They spend most of the day in the sunshine. Their routine of the day is very simple. With my hospital work and personal affirs [sic] I have little time for other activities.
Tientsin is a city almost of a million and we do [not] have any radium. How wonderful that Copenhagen has such an institute with enough radium to do some research work. There are only two cities in China that have radium- Shanghai and Peking. In our Gyn. clinic we have a number of cases of advanced carcinoma and we send them to Peking for treatment. We have had a great many cases of pneumonia this winter. Most of them were severe cases. I am sorry that I have no facilities to type them for I did typing of pneumococcus at Michigan last year, With type 1 serum is useful. The year of study has given me certain poitns for diagnosis. I am gradually working up our Pediatric clinic. The city is giving free vaccination to everybody for two months. We have added to our work the care of nine hundred students in Government Normal College for women. I wish that you are here to see them in their athletic ground. They look like boys and they play like boys. You see here the same picture as you see in America- girls are in shirts and pants. With their boyish bobs onecannot [sic] tell they are boys or girls. As a group they have better physique than their mothers. Most our women students take some subjects as their brothers. They would not listen to any subject that has anything to do with domestic science.
Today there were two hundred some tourists passing Tientsin. Among these were two who have seen my niece Vung Yuin in America, They took some moving pictures of our hospital and of my children. Then I also saw two others whom I met in Italy. The world is indeed getting smaller. There are many tourists in spring. I am sorry that they see so little of better side of China. They only come into contact with merchants and hotel people. They seldom have chance to come into contact with our educated class. I am so surprised to see so many young people among these tourists. We always think that young people should study or work and not travel.
As soon as you get settled in America I wuld [sic] ask my niece to write to you about her studies. She must study subjects which will be of aid to her in medical course. The first two years she must take required subjects. She is having Latin, French and Physics in her preparatory school. She will start to take chemistry her first year in college. So far she has done very well in her school work. She has been on honor roll three times. The last examination she failed in her English. I think that she will master her English after another year. I am so far away from America, my advice in regard to her study might not be helpful. You are right in educational work and you would be of great help to her future career. Bryn Mawr College requires reading knowledge of German for graduation. If possible we would send her to Germany for one summer; so she could have a better foundation of German before she starts into her medical course.
I am sorry that you cannot come to visit us this summer. But I am looking forward to the time when you can. I hope to come to America when my niece graduates from college and also to bring my nephew to college. He will be ready for his medical course six years from now. He is a very promisning [sic] boy. The only worry we have is that he has delicate health. These spring days are very beautiful here. I think that you are having more sunshine by this time. We have almost three hundred sunny days during a year. If you should visit us do come in spring or fall, winter is very severe here in North China. I have noticed the cold climate even after being away just one year. This is my old type writer. It needs repair. I put this old one in my office and my new one at hospital. The two type writers help me to save time.
With much love.
Yours lovingly,
M. I. Ting.April 8th, 1931.
P.S. I told Abby that you cannot come to us this year. She said that you can come on Tu-tu. She has just few baby words with her yet.