Christian missionaries from Britain, the United States and other countries first began their medical missions on a global scale in modern China in the nineteenth century, and they were greatly extolled for their great effort on promoting philanthropic medicine on these so-called “Heathen Lands.” However, these “philanthropies,” to a large degree, were constrained by how as well as how much they were financed. In fact, most of the mission clinics and hospitals in modern China went from free of charge and differentiation in pricing, to a growing tendency of charging fees and a contraction of “philanthropic medicine.” The core of missionary medicine had always been evangelization. At its initial stage, the curing part of the work was simple and crude, and they were able to provide free philanthropic medicine to all of those needed with only minimal expenses. However, as medical missions gained the trust from the Chinese patients, hospitals began to charge differentially and established private wards for the rich, so that “philanthropic medicine” only targeted at the poor. With the advance in scientific medicine, medical cost saw a dramatic increase, while at the same time, the financial support from the home countries decreased steadily. Mission hospitals had to increase the charges on patients to compensate their deficits. By making donation and paying the clinical charges, the Chinese people no longer considered themselves as the passive beneficiaries of the philanthropic medicine, at least in economic terms. Medical missions preserved some of their philanthropic measures not only because of their compassion and sympathy towards the Chinese patients but also because of the fact that philanthropy was considered to be an effective approach to spread the Gospel. Nevertheless, during the 20th century, as a result of the rapid growth in the value of land and great increase in the sale of western medication, mission hospitals made a dramatic shift from “philanthropic medicine” to “chargeable services” that can be directly or indirectly converted to real monetary values. This change, in return, adds a considerable amount of intricate correlations between these two aspects.
modern China, mission hospitals, charges, philanthropy
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