UVic Historian Discovers a Canadian Medical Missionary Heroine in China
Much hard digging by UVic Historian John Price and his associate uncovered the remarkable story of Victoria Chung who is revered as a hero in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province.
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As a medical missionary in China, she touched the lives of thousands.
Victoria Chung – named for her hometown – was honoured in that country as a national hero of culture.
And yet her accomplishments overseas may not have been recounted on this side of the Pacific, had a single news clipping from 1929 not caught the attention of historian John Price.
“It announced the upcoming visit of Victoria Chung to Peterborough, where she was going to be talking about China,” said Price, an associate professor of history at the University of Victoria.
In the Toronto Star article, Chung dismissed questions from the reporter about her experiences. But it was enough to spark Price’s interest.
For the past four years, he and fellow researcher Ningping Yu have scoured records and recollections of Chung, both in Canada and China, trying to reconstruct her life.
“I began from scratch – where she had gone, where she had worked. We made contact with the hospital in Jiangmen in the process of recovering her memory,” Price said.
To date, he’s established a solid account of her education and career. His bigger challenge is painting a picture of her personality and personal life.
“Were trying to piece it together,” Price said. “We don’t have access to her personal papers, so we really don’t know.”
– Victoria News