{"id":1520,"date":"2026-04-21T20:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/?post_type=exhibit&p=1520"},"modified":"2026-05-07T21:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:58:16","slug":"changsha-memory","status":"publish","type":"exhibit","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/exhibits\/john-h-foster-1913\/j-h-foster-2\/changsha-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"At Hsiang-Ya Medical College (1920 – 1927)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/object>With “Yale In China”<\/em>
John H. Foster describes in the article how he was attracted by the charm of the land of China and its people, and chose to come to Changsha; he also introduces the development and origins of Hsiang-Ya Medical College over the past twenty years, as well as the work of these missionaries in local medical education, diagnosis and treatment, and disease prevention. At the end of the article, he expresses that coming to China as a medical missionary is extremely meaningful and also feels very honored.<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

From 1919 to 1923, John H. Foster had worked in China for four years. For his language learning period, he went to Nanking College (1919-1920). And during his first period of missionary, he gradually became interested in the educational programs of the mission station and decided to serve another term there. After returning to China in 1924, he undertook both teaching work and medical consultation in the hospital wards. The students he served came from Guangzhou, Shanghai, the Yangtze River basin, Hunan, and other regions across the country. Some students were sponsored by the mission station and would return to various mission stations to work after graduation. These students were mature, intelligent, and highly eager to learn, actively asking questions, highly appreciative of his teaching work, and had a solid foundation in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his medical work, he found that locally prevalent conditions such as heart failure and kidney disease were mostly caused by issues like schistosomiasis, typhoid fever, and parasites, and that most diseases were related to diet and hygiene conditions. He always conveyed to his students the medical philosophy that treating patients involves not only curing diseases but also genuinely caring for the patients themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time, medical resources in China were extremely scarce, with only about 40 Western medical doctors nationwide, resulting in severe staff shortages and enormous work pressure. Epidemics would break out almost every summer, which could only be barely controlled with medication. Public health courses were also offered locally to spread basic hygiene knowledge. In his daily work, he mainly attended to foreign patients in the city and nearby areas, while local Chinese doctors were responsible for treating the local population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source from: Changsha Memories<\/em>, John H. Foster, 1980 & Colby Special Collection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From 1919 to 1923, John H. Foster had worked in China for four years. For his language learning period, he went to Nanking College (1919-1920). And during his first period of missionary, he gradually became interested in the educational programs of the mission station and decided to serve another term there. After returning to China […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":652,"menu_order":1,"template":"","institution":[],"place":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/1520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibit"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/1520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2834,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/1520\/revisions\/2834"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibit\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"place","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colby-and-china-ea333\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/place?post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}