Synopses & Reviews
Dr. Ailie Gale was one of many twentieth-century women missionaries in China whose letters to supporters played an important role in American conceptions of a "special Sino-American friendship." This book shows how these letters from China reveal as much about the strivings of readers at home as they do about China during the tumultuous period from 1911 to 1949. Because Gale and her missionary supporters were Northern Methodists, the initial chapters focus upon nineteenth-century women's Methodist missionary societies in the United States and the work of early modern physicians in China, detailing how the women's conservative cloak could sometimes challenge notions of patriarchal order. Subsequent chapters focus upon Gale's descriptions of her work as physician and surgeon in Nanchang, Tunki, and Nanking, China from 1908 to 1950, exploring the confluence between images of the Chinese and conceptions of American women.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-222) and index.