The Middle Kingdom’s Miracle Maidens

Mary Stone and Ida Kahn were the first female Chinese doctors educated in Western medicine. Both women changed China forever. This story shares their lifelong contributions to the China of their day, and how patient by patient they ended ancient traditions by producing positive results. Binding feet fell from fashion, surgery became the best solution for tumors, and female medical education saved many lives. Both physicians were born in Kiukiang, now called Jiujiang, one of many pearls along the sometimes over-flowing Yangtze River. Both were entrusted to missionaries. Both children had something about them their parents saw as mystical. We all became blessed because they took a course of unprecedented action, covering more than half the globe, and spoke to a simple way of facing impossible odds to make a difference.