MISSIONARIES, MEDICINE AND MODERNIZATION: CANADIAN MEDICAL MISSIONARIES IN SICHUAN, 1925-1952

This study examines the role of Canadian medical missionaries at the West China Mission in Sichuan, China, during the years 1925 to 1952. It analyzes the medical missionaries as an extrinsic moderizing elite who sought to introduce medical modernization into China by: (1) creating a technological elite; (2) building the physical infrastructure to provide medical care; and (3) mobilizing local social and political elites to support the institution of a modern health care system. The dissertation focuses on the ideology of the missionaries, the process by which they attempted to transmit their values and technology to the Chinese, and the consequences of their strategy for social and political change.