Li Yuin Tsao (1886 – August 14, 1922), also seen as Tsao Liyuin, was a Chinese medical doctor.

Early life

Tsao was from

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

, the daughter of Tse-Zeh Tsao (Cao Zishi, 1847-1902), a Methodist minister who was partly educated in the United States. She attended the

McTyeire School McTyeire School () was a private girls' school in Shanghai. It was established by Young John Allen and Laura Askew Haygood in 1882. Its namesake was Holland Nimmons McTyeire. History The school had seven students in 1855 and more than 100 studen ...

in Shanghai and a missionary girls' school in Nagasaki.Pripas-Kapit, Sarah
"Piety, Professionalism and Power: Chinese Protestant Missionary Physicians and Imperial Affiliations between Women in the Early Twentieth Century"
''Gender & History'', 27 (August 2015): 349–373. Tsao was a teacher before she received a scholarship from medical missionary Mary Hancock McLean to attend college in the United States in 1905. After two years of preparation at a women's college in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, she was a medical student at the

Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was founded in 1850, and was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine to earn the M.D. degree. The New England Female Medical College had been established ...

, where she was vice-president of the class of 1911. In 1908, she attended the Conference of Chinese Students in Boston, and heard

Wu Tingfang Wu Ting-fang (; 30 July 184223 June 1922) was a diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and briefly as Acting Premier during the early years of the Republic of China. He was also known as Ng Choy or Ng Achoy (). Ed ...

speak. Her sister Faung (Fanny) Yuin Tsao attended

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

and

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

; one of her brothers attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Career

Tsao was an intern under Bertha Van Hoosen at Chicago's Mary Thompson Hospital, and her success there opened the door to other Chinese and Chinese-American women physicians, including

Margaret Chung Margaret Jessie Chung (, – ), born in Santa Barbara, California, was the first known American-born Chinese female physician. After graduating from the University of Southern California Medical School in 1916 and completing her internship and ...

. Tsao returned to China after internships in Chicago and St. Louis, then in 1912 took an appointment at a Quaker-sponsored hospital in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, where she remained until 1918. While in Nanjing, she was also involved with the Union Training School for Nurses, taught at Ginling College for Women, and gave public lectures on health topics. She moved to

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

to work at the Peiyang Woman's Hospital. While there, she was active in the city's

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

program, as president of its board of directors.

Me-Iung Ting Me-Iung Ting (; 1891–1969) was a Chinese physician and feminist. She was the daughter of a well-known Chinese doctor, Ting Gan-Ren. Me-Iung attended Mount Holyoke College and graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Michigan at Ann A ...

was Tsao's assistant and successor at Nanjing, and they worked together again at Peiyang Woman's Hospital.

Personal life

After Li Yuin Tsao's death in 1922, from a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

. Mary Hancock McLean wrote a short biography, ''Dr. Li Yuin Tsao: Called and Chosen and Faithful'' (1925).

References

External links

* Sarah Pripas
"The International History of Women’s Medical Education: What Does Imperialism Have To Do With It?"
''Nursing Clio'' (June 16, 2015). A blogpost about Tsao and other women physicians. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsao, Li Yuin 1886 births 1922 deaths Physicians from Jiangsu Chinese women physicians Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni People from Suzhou