Saving Lives in Wartime China  

A Conversation with Dr. John Watt

The Harvard Club of Beijing and the Yale Club of Beijing are delighted to welcome Dr. John Watt, a renowned historian on public health and medical history in China, to discuss his most recent work, "Saving Lives in Wartime China: How Medical Reformers Build Modern Healthcare Systems Amid War and Epidemics, 1928-1945". This event is supported by the alumni clubs of Oxford, Cambridge, and Johns Hopkins.

Join Dr. Watt as he shares the fascinating story of how dedicated Chinese and American medical professionals together shaped a modern notion of public medicine and saved tens of thousands of lives during this turbulent period of history.

When: 19:00-21:00, Tuesday September 1 | 19:00 Registration, 19:30-21:00 Discussion

Where: CBD Area. See e-ticket for details.

Ticketing: 50 RMB | Free for the first ten 2013 or later grads of Harvard's, Johns Hopkins' or Yale's undergraduate colleges.

Seating is limited, please purchase your tickets here: https://yoopay.cn/event/53793852

Eligibility: Non-alumni are welcome to sign up.

About the speaker:

John R. Watt, Ph.D.

Dr. Watt is vice president of The ABMAC Foundation (successor to ABMAC 美国医药援华会, 1937-2003). Its mission is to promote biomedical education in China. As a historian Dr. Watt has studied the development of biomedicine in China. His most recent publication is  Saving Lives in Wartime China: How Medical Reformers Built Modern Healthcare Systems amid War and Epidemics, 1928-1945 (Leiden and Boston, E. J. Brill, 2014). Fudan University Press is publishing a Chinese edition of this text in August 2015. Dr. Watt is also visiting professor at Number 3 People’s Hospital in Chengdu.

“Saving Lives” shows how a small number of Chinese healthcare reformers were able to save thousands of lives, promote hygiene and sanitation, and begin to bring battlefield casualties, communicable diseases and maternal child mortality under control. Two chapters deal with Red Army healthcare in Jiangxi and healthcare in North and Northwest China during the War of Resistance (1937-1945).

Dr. Watt is also author of The District Magistrate in Late Imperial China (New York, Columbia U.P., 1972), co-editor with Jane Kate Leonard of To Achieve Wealth and Security: The Qing Imperial State and the Economy, 1644-1911 (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University, East Asia Program 1992). Other writings include essays on Ming and Qing institutional history and on modern medicine, nursing and public health in Republican China.

Previous positions include Executive Secretary, Committee on International Relations Studies with the PRC ; Executive Director ABMAC; Academic Dean, Windham College; Fellow in History and Faculty Chair, Johnston College, University of Redlands; and Assistant Professor of History, MIT.

Dr. Watt holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford, Master’s from Harvard and Ph.D. From Columbia.