Speaker: Wendy Lee
During the 20th Century, China underwent one of the most remarkable public health transformations in human history. Its population grew from 400 million to 1.26 billion. Life expectancy increased from 35-40 years to more than 70 years. This achievement depended on the introduciton of modern medical science and the creation of institutions capable of training generations of physicians, researchers and public health professionals. This talk will include the contributions of Dr. Chung-un Lee, a little known but important figure in his generation.
Wei-Hua (Wendy) Lee is a retired Associate Professor of Pediatrics and anatomy at the IU School of Medicine. She taught neurobiology and condocuted research on neonatal brain injury for more than two decades. She received her medical training at Capital Medical University in China and earned her PhD in Pharmacology from IU> A former HIH-funded investigator, she has authored or co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed articles and led multiple exernally funded research projects. Since her retiremen, Lee has conducted extensive archival research in China, the UK, the US and Taiwan. Her research draws on institutional archives from Peking Union Medical College, the Guizhou Provincial Archives, the Rockefeller Archive Center, the University of Glasgow, family papers and unpublished materials. She has conducted interviews with former students and colleagues of Chung-un Lee, perserving first hand testimony not available elsewhere. Lee is the granddaughter of Chung-un Lee and resides in Indianapolis.
Sponsored by Glenn Bingle.
Program: The Making of Modern Medical Education in 20th Century China
Speaker: Wei-Hua (Wendy) Lee, PhD, MD, Assoc. Prof. (retired), IUSM
Introduced By: Betty Yan
Attendance: NESC: 101; Zoom: 20
Guests: Bill Black, Ann Blunk, Terry Coyle, Mary Russell, Ken Spall
Scribe: Judy Weitzman
Editor: Carl Warner
Talk’s Zoom recording found at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/08312026.mp4
Today’s program was presented by Dr. Wendy Lee, a retired Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Anatomy at the IU School of Medicine. The talk, entitled The Making of Modern Medical Education in Twentieth-Century China, reflects her extensive research into the tremendous changes in medical care in China, the effects of those changes and the critical role her grandfather, Chung-un Lee, played in them.
Early 20th century China faced severe public health challenges. The population in China was approximately 400 million with a life expectancy of 35-40 years. In 1921 there was only 1 qualified physician per 300,000 people, compared to 1 per 1,100 in the UK and 1 per 720 in the US. Infant mortality was 25%. Infectious diseases and epidemics were widespread.
By the year 2,000, the Chinese population had grown to 1.26 billion people with a life expectancy of 71 years. The change to health care didn’t happen overnight and the process was not always easy.
The first big change happened in 1921 when J.D. Rockefeller directed a multimillion dollar grant to create the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). It was modeled after Johns Hopkins Medical School and Hospital with emphasis on basic research, clinical practice and laboratory science. In other words, it integrated a medical school with a teaching hospital. Rockefeller directed PUMC to create an environment where Western scientific medicine would be taken over by native Chinese to become a part of national life.
PUMC set very high standards in selecting students and recruiting top international physicians. Dr. Wendy Lee’s grandfather, Chung-un Lee, had completed his medical education in Britain where he had been trained as a physician and researcher. He was recruited by PUMC and returned to China to assume the role of junior assistant. He became an Associate Professor in 1935.
Chung-un Lee’s research was directed at curing tropical diseases. His fieldwork and lab research led him to understand transmission cycles and led to the eradication of several diseases like kala-azar. In 1931, Chung-un Lee took PUMC’s standards beyond its campus when he led a team to Central China to respond to the enormous medical needs that followed a devastating flood.
PUMC was making major progress in improving medical care but the 1937 invasion by Japan put a temporary end to that. PUMC was in Japanese occupied territory so Dr. Lee established a new medical school in impoverished, isolated Guizhou Province. In 1938 the Guiyang Medical College (NGMC) was established to serve a population with a severe doctor shortage (1 per 800,000). NGMC was built from scratch using rented guild halls, improvised structures and equipment.
Under Dr. Lee’s leadership, NGMC emphasized high academic standards, rigorous training and character development focused on intellectual integrity and social responsibility. He also introduced holistic student life including sports, arts and scientific societies. Despite wartime hardships that included bombings, NGMC graduated doctors, nurses, midwives and engineers who served their country.
At the end of World War II, PUMC was reopened. The Rockefeller Foundation invested $45 million in reconstruction. In recognition of his heroic work with NGMC during the war, Dr. Lee was unanimously elected the first Chinese president of PUMC in 1947 at its reopening.
The civil war in China that resulted in the Communist takeover of Beijing in 1949 placed PUMC under new political realities. The Korean War had shifted US-China relations and the Communist government of China viewed PUMC as a symbol of “American cultural imperialism.” In 1951 PUMC was nationalized by the Chinese Ministry of Health. PUMC’s integrated scientific and clinical medicine approach was replaced with a Soviet model that placed faculty and curriculum under political control. In 1956, after speaking out in favor of human rights, Dr. Lee was demoted and forced to leave Peking.
PUMC closed again during the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and reopened in 1979. Despite the closures and political challenges, PUMC’s buildings survived and its ideals have persisted.
Over the years, the Guiyang Medical College evolved into Guizhou Medical University where Dr. Chung-un Lee is commemorated with statues and an annual remembrance.
Modern medical education in China owes much to leaders like Dr. Lee who carried scientific standards and professional integrity through war and upheaval. His lifelong motto remains true today: “Be true to oneself, serve others, honor the past, look to the future.”
Wendy Lee
