Taking into account of the colonial nature of modern Hong Kong, this author is to examine how the TWGHs as a medical space gradually developed from one that used only Chinese medicine into one in which Chinese medicine and western medicine coexisted. However, it finally became a western style hospital using only western medicine in the inpatient services in the 1940s, along with the growing hegemony of western medicine that was underpinned by colonial power. The multidimensional relationships among different agents in the process of transformation of medical services in the TWGHs constitutes another important theme of this thesis. These relationships touched upon a series of significant interactions between colonial government and Chinese community, colonial authorities and the Tung Wah Board of Directors, Chinese and western medical practitioners, Chinese community and the Tung Wah authorities, and so on. / The implantation, dissemination and expansion of modern western medicine, as an important part of western learning that infiltrated into the Orient, exerted profound impacts on Chinese traditional medical patterns and Chinese medical ideas and practices. As the center for exchange between Chinese and Western Culture, Hong Kong became a significant space for the spread and practice of western medicine. A wide range of western medical services and activities were delivered and developed by the colonial government, western missionaries, benevolent societies, and private practitioners in order to promote the development and popularization of western medicine among the Chinese community, including the establishment of hospitals, dispensaries and clinics, the opening of medical schools and training of western doctors, and the promotion of public health education. / This thesis also points out that the early intense prejudice and resistance against western medicine is not necessarily and cannot be entirely attributed to the underlying difference in the concept and practice of healing and sickness in the two different medical systems. Instead, I argue that a number of technical and practical factors in the delivery of western medical services provided by different agencies greatly affected and determined the choices and uses of the Chinese population. At the same time, the gradual recognition and reception of western medicine among the Chinese was not only the passive result of the compulsory western medical system developed by the colonial government, but also an active realization of the real efficiency and value of western medicine among the indigenous population and their consent and acceptance of its ideology and cultural value, to a great extent. / This thesis examines the confrontation and interaction between Chinese medicine and Western medicine, and the diverse and complicated Chinese attitudes towards western medicine by studying the history of the introduction of western medicine into Hong Kong and the case of transformation of Chinese and western medical services in the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) during the period between 1894 and 1941. The history of the TWGHs dates back to the opening of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1870. Originally intended for the accommodation and treatment of those Chinese who had strong fears and prejudices against western medicine, the Tung Wah Hospital was founded to provide treatment only by Chinese doctors using Chinese medicine. The bubonic plague of 1894 in Hong Kong marked an important turning point in the history of medical services of the Tung Wah Hospital. Since then, western medicine was formally introduced into the Tung Wah Hospital in 1897. / 楊祥銀. / Adviser: Hon-ming Yip. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0715. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-306). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Yang Xiangyin.