Charity, Medicine, and Religion: The Quest for Modernity in Canton (ca, 1870-1937)

Charity, Medicine, and Religion: The Quest for Modernity in Canton (ca, 1870-1937)

Angela Leung - Joseph Needham–Philip Mao Professor in Chinese History, Science and Civilization; Director and Chair Professor of History, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong

Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Auditorium (Room 101), Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511
<div style=”text-align:justify;”>The Council is pleased to present the 53rd Annual Edward H. Hume Memorial Lecture.
 
Charity halls established in major Chinese metropolises in the post-Taiping era had the common mission of restoring political and social order in a period of continuous human and natural disasters. They all shared some common new features that distinguished them from traditional charities: first, local merchant groups, with their national and global networks, replaced the traditional gentry as leaders in the movement. This new leadership also brought about new forms of management that allowed the implementation of disaster relief on a national scale. The charitable agenda was also changing with, for example, a greater weight given to medical institutions in the form of charitable dispensaries and especially hospitals. Institutions established shortly before the fall of the Qing dynasty and in the early Republican period reflected some of the new social problems that major Chinese cities were facing, and more importantly, the changing mindset of philanthropists who now saw themselves not only as providers of charity, but more as social reformers who stepped in where the state, and not only the family, was failing. One new factor clearly affected the way they perceived China’s social problems: the introduction of Western values including science and technology first by Christian missionaries. The intriguing link between this factor and yet another new feature of modern charity halls: their open religious affiliation, provides another locus for further contemplation on the question of modernity in urban China. This talk focuses on the historical experience of Canton.
 
This annual lecture in honor of Dr. Edward H. Hume is made possible by the generosity of his family and many friends. Dr. Hume devoted much of his long and vigorous life to working in China and elsewhere in the cause of health care and medical training. He graduated from Yale College in 1897, and received his medical degree four years later from Johns Hopkins University. He worked in India from 1903 to 1905 before going to China, where he founded the Hsiang-ya Medical School and Hospital under the auspices of Yale-in-China in Changsha.</div>
 
Please RSVP to eastasian.studies@yale.edu by Wednesday, APRIL 10TH Reception to follow lecture in Luce Common Room
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