Victoria Chung was a Canadian medical missionary and physician. She was the first Chinese-Canadian to become a certified physician, as well as one of the first female interns at Toronto General Hospital. She became a surgeon and hospital administrator of the Marion Barclay Hospital for Women and Children, today the in Kongmoon, as part of the United Church's South China Mission. Her practise at the hospital spanned several decades, during the Chinese Civil War, the Japanese occupation of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and during the early days of the People's Republic of China.
Early life Victoria Chung was born as Chung Toy Mea in 1897 in Victoria, British Columbia to Sing Noon Chung, a former Canadian Pacific Railway construction worker and Yin Han, a midwife. She was named after Queen Victoria, who in 1897 was celebrating her Diamond Jubilee, and for the city where her parents had settled. As a young girl she expressed interest in becoming a medical missionary in China. In November, 1900, Victoria was placed in the Chinese Rescue Home, later renamed the Oriental Home, by her parents. The Oriental Home was operated by the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist and Presbyterian Church, and it operated a daycare, school, residence and temporary wedding chapel.
Education While still boarding, Victoria was enrolled in kindergarten at the Oriental Home. At the time, the Victoria School Board had banned Chinese students from attending their schools between 1903 and 1909. Once the ban was lifted, Victoria returned to the family home and began attending public school in 1909, enrolling at Central Middle School. In 1913 she enrolled at Victoria High School and graduated first class in 1916. She then took first year arts at Victoria College. Chung was particularly skilled in the sciences and math, although in high school she struggled with Latin, with a grade of 59%. She was rewarded a medical scholarship by the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Society (WMS) in 1917 and began studying at the University of Toronto that fall.
Chung's arrival at U of T was noted at the time by the Toronto Star and the university's paper, The Varsity:“Among the girl freshies who registered at the university was an interesting little personage from Victoria, B.C., Miss Victoria Chung. Miss Chung is a very bright and attractive little Chinese maid who has come to this city with the intention of entering on the medical course, in the hope that she may go back among her own people as a medical missionary.”
Out of a class of 79 graduates, Chung was one of 14 women, who included Lillian Chase. Chung graduated from medical school in 1922 and wrote her final exams for certification in 1923 with Ontario's College of Physicians and Surgeons. She began an internship at Toronto General Hospital in the summer of 1922, becoming one of the first female residents at the hospital. On June 17, 1923, Dr. Chung and three others, including Dr. Robert McClure, were consecrated by minister George C. Pidgeon for overseas missionary service. Fourteen days later, the Chinese Exclusion Act received royal assent, precipitating Dr. Chung's choice to leave for China.
After being assigned her practise in Kongmoon, Dr. Chung continued to further her education by taking furloughs to attain more training every five or six years. This included graduate training at Bellevue Hospital in 1929 and more studying in Toronto. During her second furlough she was a resident at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicines. Dr. Chung would also give lectures and presentations at learning and faith institutions in Canada, including the Women's Missionary Society. In 1948 she attended the Annual Conference on Medical Missions in Washington, D.C.
Practice in China Dr. Chung departed Victoria in late 1923 for Kongmoon, via Hong Kong. At the time, the port of Kongmoon was a British run "free port". The British established a Customs House, run by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, one of several in China at the time.
Early practise
As part of the United Church's South China Mission, the WMS assigned Dr. Chung to the Marion Barclay Hospital for Women and Children in Kongmoon. The hospital was mainly funded by the WMS and the United Church, but it also received funding from other missionary groups in Canada. When she was first assigned to the hospital, Kongmoon and the surrounding area were considered rural. The hospital had about thirty beds, no electricity or running water and outdated equipment. Her early practise at the hospital took place during expansion of the hospital compound, with a new building created as a men's wing, while the existing building would become the women's wing, under the direction of Dr. Chung and Dr. MacBean, with Dr. Chung taking on sole direction in 1925. Between 1925 and 1927, in the wake of anti-imperialist protests and suppression, Dr. Chung and other missionaries evacuated the hospital twice and relocated to Hong Kong. In the late 1920s the hospital was supplied with electricity and running water, and connected to telephone. The Women's Hospital had increased to have 40 beds by this time. While on her first furlough in the United States in 1929–1930, she purchased an Elliot Machine for the hospital, a medical device used to reduce pelvic inflammation.
During the 1930s, Dr. Chung became the principal medical officer of the hospital and was responsible for supervising its overall operations. She undertook any responsibilities that were needed, including work in administration, the hospital dispensary, teaching nursing at the hospital, and being the acting chief medical officer of the Men's section of the hospital. In addition to these responsibilities, Dr. Chung was the corresponding secretary for the WMS, who she relied on for funds. The hospital had private contracts with the British Customs House, to provide additional funds for its expanding operations. By the mid-1930s, the hospital was expanded again, adding a new wing, and the hospital obtained typewriters, an X-ray machine and refrigeration equipment. Dr. Ching also obtained an ambulance for the hospital. The hospital also reduced its fees and waived fees for obstetrical in-patient care in 1934. By 1936, donations in Canada had fallen so such a degree that a group of Canadian United Church officials visited the hospital to propose withdrawing funding and transferring funding responsibilities to the local Chinese church. After seeing the work that Dr. Chung and her colleagues achieved at the hospital and school, the Church officials decided to continue funding the hospital.
The Marion Barclay Hospital also ran clinics outside of the hospital compound. In Toishan there was "Baby Wellness Clinic" for the treatment of infants, while in Sun Wui there was a medical clinic run weekly by Dr. Chung and hospital staff. Among the hospital staff was her cousin, Cheung Meu Siu, a nurse.
During Japanese occupation
While away on her second furlough in July 1937, China was invaded by Japan. Dr. Chung returned to the Mission in early 1938 and tended to refugees who'd fled to the south as a result of the Canton Operation in late 1938, with some settling in and around the hospital. On March 28, 1939, while she was away in Hong Kong, Kongmoon was bombed by Japanese aircraft and the hospital's nursing quarters were directly struck. On March 29, Japanese troops arrived at Kongmoon's port and the city was occupied, while the Mission, as a foreign entity was not. No staff were killed in the attack but dozens of residents in the surrounding area were killed or wounded. The displaced and refugees converged on the hospital for shelter and safety. Dr Chung was kept busy vaccinating the crowds against cholera, smallpox and typhus, as well as treating patients with dysentery and malaria. As a foreign mission, the hospital had certain protections afforded to it by treaties. The hospital had at least one British flag painted on the roof of the compound, and the Mission's location was stated to Japan several months prior to the attack on Kongmoon. Since Japan was not at war with Canada or the UK at the time, the Japanese were charged with paying compensation to the Mission by the British Consulate-General of Guangzhou for the damage to the hospital. Japanese officials eventually paid $1600 in Guangzhou currency in June 1939. Shortly after this incident, United Church officials indicated their concern about the safety of their female missionaries, with the British diplomats eventually collecting most of the women from Kongmoon and taking them to Hong Kong. This left the hospital with only a few Canadian mission staff remaining, including Dr. Chung, while also on staff was the Chinese Dr. Annie (Shuk Yin) Wong, who joined the hospital in 1936. There were additional nurses hired with money from the salary of vacant doctor positions, and the hospital focused on providing basic services for patients. As time passed Dr. Chung continued to update the WMS about the hospital's operations and the conditions in Kongmoon under Japanese occupation. She wrote:"Our hills have been stripped of all timber; I wish it were for as good a cause as fuel; our river front is piled high with trunks of young trees, whilst everywhere the wood problem grows more acute ... Folks have been more cautious in venturing out at all, as carriers and coolies [sic] are in demand everywhere..."
Despite the hardships at the hospital, there was a Christmas celebration in 1940, complete with prayers, singing and an appearance from Santa Claus.
Japanese at war with Allies In December 1941, Japan invaded British holdings in the Pacific Theatre, including Hong Kong. Foreign missionaries were now considered enemy aliens. On December 19–20, the Japanese gathered the Catholic Maryknoll mission, the United Church mission, and British customs commissioner and harbour master, and placed them under house arrest in the home of Dr. Chung's colleagues, Mr. and Mrs. Broadfoot. Eventually the group was told they would be sent to Macau and they left on December 29. Dr. Chung did not inform the Japanese of her British Passport, and as such she was not required to leave Kongmoon. Dr. Chung refused to collaborate with the Japanese, and she, her mother and staff were expelled from the hospital compound. The Japanese also seized the hospitals ambulance and Red Cross food supplies.
Dr. Chung and her colleagues continued to provide dispensary services and ambulatory care out of a rented building in Kongmoon. By 1943 they had bought a three-story building in Kongmoon city to set up a clinic and dispensary. The Japanese conducted frequent searches of homes to look for signs of resistance or foreign agents, but they never discovered the clinic. Dr. Chung did not receive her salary from the WMS between 1941 and 1945 due to the war.
By September 1945, Japan had surrendered to the Allies and by October Marion Barclay had been cleared of Japanese forces by Chinese soldiers. Two of Dr. Chung's missionary colleagues, nurses Cairns and Issac returned to the hospital by the end of the year. The hospital resumed in-patient care, as well as teaching at the hospital's school.
Resumed civil war