[
    {
        "id": 213040,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1993",
        "page_number": 108,
        "title": "RAS-1993",
        "content_text": "88\n\nAlthough Dr. Gibson responded favourably to the Chinese subscribers' request for a lady doctor, and despite his protestations to the contrary, it seems that he had no thought that she would be a full partner in the medical enterprise. From the correspondence, Dr. Gibson emerges as a man committed to the medical mission endeavour, taking every opportunity to expand its influence and asserting the right to be unencumbered in the running of the hospitals. At his arrival in 1897, as a well-qualified graduate of the Edinburgh medical school, he was in conflict with the District Committee over their control of the hospital via the Hospital House Committee, which comprised Dr. Ho Kai, the Hospital Chairman, the medical staff, and the missionaries of the LMS in Hong Kong. He insisted that their role was advisory, and that interference in the appointment of staff would impede the hospital's proper management. The Committee was dissolved, and from 1898, the hospital was managed by the LMS District Committee and the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Gibson. He was also unable to work satisfactorily with the private practitioners, leaders in the Hong Kong medical community, who worked as honoraries in the hospital, and their services were discontinued. Thus, from the beginning, Dr. Gibson attempted and, to some extent, gained his independence regarding what he saw as his sphere.\n\nHow well he coped with the pressures of his expanding role is questionable. Certainly, he regularly replied to LMS London correspondence months later, with apologies and complaints about how overworked he was. In 1906, Mr. Pearce, the Secretary of the Hong Kong District Committee of the LMS, commented that he hoped Dr. Gibson would be refreshed and less difficult after his furlough. Noting that, with the acceptance of an offer from an Australian nurse, Miss Langdon, to work voluntarily in the hospital, the medical mission would have four workers, Dr. Gibson continued: 'we must pray to be kept humble'. His co-operative relationship with Mrs. Stevens until her death in 1903 is apparent, as they shared plans for new services and began their twice-weekly trips to Kowloon to run the new clinic there. At her death on 5 December 1903, his grief and sense of loss were strong. Yet a lady doctor was a different matter and a threat in a way which a hospital matron was not.\n\nWhat Dr. Gibson wanted was a lady doctor who would work in a voluntary or privately funded capacity, as in the LMS China posts, and who, therefore, would not be a member of the hospital's establishment.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213045,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1993",
        "page_number": 113,
        "title": "RAS-1993",
        "content_text": "93\n\nsinging at Mr. Wells' day school. \"Other afternoons I give to what I think I was meant especially to do - visiting the small-footed rich ladies who so rarely hear anything of the Gospel ...'.\" Reaching Chinese women for evangelistic purposes was an objective of the LMS support for women missionaries, and thus was a legitimate part of Dr. Sibree's role as a mission doctor.\n\n5}\n\nFor Dr. Gibson and Dr. Mitchell, who did not complete his Cantonese lessons, there were other missionaries who could work with Chinese men, although the District Committee was obviously concerned at the emphasis on 'medical' rather than 'missionary' amongst the male doctors. Mr. Pearce expressed the view that there was a need to devote more attention to the spiritual aspects of the medical work. With the opening of the Ho Miu Ling Hospital, the Committee requested the appointment of a further male medical missionary, to be trained in Cantonese language, so that pastoral work could occur. As well, the professional hierarchy within medicine, where surgery as an invasive skill in acute illness is seen as more important than obstetric care, a narrow specialisation which Dr. Sibree herself recognised, “reinforced the emphasis on a mixed role for the Lady Doctor.\n\nIt seems that this view of the female medical missionary as naturally and substantially involved in pastoral matters was held by Dr. Gibson, perhaps coloured, paradoxically, by a protectiveness. He was undoubtedly shaken by the death of Mrs. Stevens, noting that Miss Langdon, her successor, should not be pressured to stay long with the mission when her health may suffer. A similar concern probably prompted his view that Dr. Sibree should not be overworked. That would certainly be consistent with a patriarchal view of women as delicate and fitted more for pastoral work rather than 'real' medical work such as surgery. However, the weight of evidence points to his interest in protecting his autonomy vis-a-vis any interference in running the hospitals from the District Committee, and to his correct view that the Chinese subscribers were essential to the expansion of the medical mission. All this was allied with his interest in his work with the Hongkong College of Medicine and prospects of a role in the future University Medical School.\n\nReplacing Dr. Sibree: Chinese subscribers and LMS control\n\nAlthough Dr. Sibree was obviously unhappy with the limitations placed",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302",
        "rank": 0
    }
]