In the late nineteenth century, the level of Chinese infant mortality in Hong Kong
became a matter of grave concern to colonial officials. The significance accorded to the
infant mortality rate reflected both contemporary Western notions about the health of the
nation and good government, and long-standing associations of Chinese culture with
infanticide. Initial investigations focused on deaths from tetanus neonatorum in local
Western charitable institutions. Further reports in the mid-1890s blamed Chinese
midwives for infant deaths, and some officials pressed for the regulation of these women.
The course of the ensuing debate, which spanned a decade and a half, illustrated the
politics of public health in the colony, whereby the Hong Kong government consulted
with members of the Chinese elite and sought compromise, so as not to antagonise the
Chinese population. The resulting Midwives Ordinance of 1910 thus did not affect
Chinese midwives unless they claimed to have Western training. Rather than attempt to
proscribe the native midwives, the government supported local training initiatives in the
hope that Western-style birth professionals would gradually prevail. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/6030 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Petrie, Ian Christopher |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 3090662 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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