Medical Missionary Enterprise And Modern Shandong Society(1860-1937)

After the second opium war, the protestant Christianity piled into Shandong. Protestant missionaries constructed churches, preached Christianity to the natives, did charitable deeds, with medical missionary enterprise being one of the most important aspects. Protestant missionaries introduced modern western medicine to the local society in Shandong, set up dispensarys and hospitals, carried out medical education there. This can insure a productive and healthy life for Protestant missionaries and their families, and can also promote the missionary activities.Protestant medical missionary enterprise developed fairly well in Shandong, the number of hospital, doctors and nurses in China and from abroad, ranked near the top in China. There were many high-quality missionary hospitals, including Williams-Porter Hospitals, St. Agatha’s Hospital, Kathleen Mallory and Mayfield-Tyzzer Hospital, Warren Memorial Hospital, etc. Besides, protestant missions in Shandong jointly established the Shantung Christian University, which medical school was very famous in modern China.Without going into too much detail, protestant medical missionary enterprise in Shandong contains three facts:dispensarys and hospitals, medical school and public welfare activities. They interacted with each other, and their center task was preaching Christianity to the natives.All of these have made huge implications on the local society in Shandong, promoting the diffusion of modern western medicine, had come to modernization from tradition. On the other side, these three aspects were also influenced, even limited by the culture and environment of local society in Shandong. They had to successively accustom themselves to the local society, cooperate with local powers in order to boost their enterprise. The relationship between protestant medical missionary enterprise and modern Shandong society is a strategic game with each other. There is not a uniform "local society", nor a holistic "medical missionary enterprise". The relationships between each church and all levels and regions of society have its special interactive form.