My Chinese Days

“There is no adventure without love. Love is the great Adventure.”

Doctor Wilhelmina, a young idealistic American physician and the leading character in this story, is a fictional amalgamation of several real women that worked as missionary doctors in twentieth century China. The experiences described are largely those of the author, Gulielma Fell Alsop, herself while working as a medical missionary and the resident physician at St Elizabeth’s Hospital for Women and Children in Shanghai. The story is set against the dramatic backdrop of China in the early 1900s and details the impressions she had of Shanghai and those living there, with some added elaboration, hindsight, and dramatic flair.

From finding a murdered body and dodging bullets while at the Kaung Wan slave refuge to surviving a severe typhoon and keeping an eye on her staff of young Chinese women, Doctor Wilhelmina’s mission to carry out her purpose as a doctor in a humane and religiously minded manner leads her into a host of situations that might otherwise have gone unrecorded. As a work of fiction, the story is able to dive deep into Wilhelmina’s internal dialogue and emotional turmoil over a persistent man from her past, providing readers with a beautiful understanding of Chinese customs, the empathy felt by foreigners in the region, and the struggle between a woman’s choice of career or love.