Female Network of Medical Knowledge: Translating, Producing, and Transmitting Modern Medicine in South China at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
摘要
This chapter examines the connections between female medical professionals in South China. It seeks to improve our understanding of their experiences and contributions to modern medicine by analyzing them as part of a network. Its aim is not to produce a comprehensive and definitive map of this female network, but rather to explore how it developed, and how it sustained modern medicine in the Chinese southern province of Guangdong (known as Kwangtung) during the early decades of the twentieth century. Capitalizing on the perceived need for their services, sharing educational and professional experiences in a predominantly male profession, and leveraging their personal relationships, women physicians affiliated with Hackett Medical College for Women in Guangzhou (known as Canton) forged bounds that supported their development as medical professionals. Sustained by existing connexions, and equally motivated to cultivate new ones, these women became translators, producers and transmitters of modern medical knowledge. Through their network, which spanned time, space, and professional boundaries, female physicians positioned themselves as vital repositories of knowledge, essential for the development of modern medicine in the region.