黃賢強,《伍連德新論: 南洋知識份子與近代中國·醫術》 [Wu Lien-Teh Revisited: The Nanyang Intelligentsia and Modern Medicine in China] by Wong Sin Kiong (review)

Widely known for his efforts as a doctor fighting the plague, Wu Lien-Teh (1879–1960) has attracted renewed interest over the past decade. Conferences have commemorated his work, and a public health award, various research prizes, a hospital ward, and a road now bear his name.

In 1959, a year before his death, Wu wrote and published a 667-page volume entitled ‘Plague Fighter’: Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician. The book provided exhaustive detail about a most eventful life and seemingly covered everything there was to know about the man and his life. It’s primary focus was on the major role he played in the fight against bubonic plaque in Manchuria, and his efforts to transform and modernize medical services in China.

The question for a would-be biographer is what else is there to say beyond what Wu included in his memoir. The answer turns out to be, quite a lot. Professor Wong Sin Kiong’s new book shows that Wu was an extraordinary personality, not only a scientist and medical practitioner but also a prolific author. a public intellectual with a strong sense of duty and mission, a reformer, and a keen observer.

While Wong’s book is a biographical study of Wu, it reads like a history of modern China and its elites. The book embraces several eras in China’s history, including the Manchu dynasty, the new early republic, the Warlord era, the Nanjing Republican era, the Japanese Occupation, the Civil War, and the new People’s Republic. Throughout this period, Wu served in important positions and was a leader in bringing modern medicine and public health services to China.

Wong skilfully introduces individuals who interacted with Wu Lien-Teh in Penang and during his long tenure in China, many of whom were close to the centre of power. Some of the people Wong describes are prominent figures but others are not well known. The Chinese leaders and elites whom Wu Lien-Teh met and served included Prince Kung, Tang Zhaoyi, Tie Liang, Xi Liang, Dr Sun Yat- Sen, Yuan Shikai, Chiang Kai-Shek, Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Zuolin, Wu Tingfang, Yanfu, Liang Qichao, and Chen Youren, a list that includes many key personalities in modern Chinese history. Wong discusses each of these individuals in turn and Wu Lien-Teh’s relations with them in detail, explaining their significance and Wu’s impression of each of them, valuable information for an understanding of the people and places where Wu served. Wong also explains Wu Lien-Teh’s connections with important Malayan personalities when he returned to Malaya just before the outbreak of the Pacific War. Again, the list includes some of the leading figures at the time, including Tan Cheng Lock, the Manivasagam Brothers, and many British officials.

To explore Wu’s role in the links between what he calls ‘Nanyang Intelligentsia’ and the promotion of modern medicine in China, Wong uses the concept of transmigrating personalities, an idea he has promoted in many previous works. The personalities from the Nanyang (Southeast Asia) were mostly medical doctors and public intellectuals. Chen Jibang and Lim Boon Kheng were winners of the prestigious Queen's Scholarship, and Lin Chongyang won the King Edward VII Scholarship awarded by Hong Kong University. Others included Ke Xilai, Wu Maixi, and Wu Zhangyao. All of them served China and helped modernise the country.

Writing this book clearly required great fortitude and strength, most importantly the fortitude to continue and complete a project that required twenty years of in-depth research into events, personalities, and institutions. Wong skilfully explains the milieus within which Wu moved, and his excellent notes facilitate reading the volume.

What then are the book’s main contributions? It positions Wu Lien-Teh in the context of a broad history, starting with traces his family’s emigration from China to Penang, where he grew up during the era...