Last days in China
In 1881, as a frontier of medical concepts and technologies, he went to China, which was transitioning from closed to open. The Boxer Rebellion, the Revolution of 1911 and the civil war of 1924, the anti-British boycott of 1925 broke out one after another. Hospitals, as the frontier of the war, were inevitably involved. But even under such pressure, Dr. Main still stuck to his motto “keep smiling” and devoted all his enthusiasm to his career until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1926.
The Boxer Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty
Xinhai Revolution, on October, 1911
The anti-british boycott
In 1906 he built a maternity hospital and translated China's first obstetrics textbook "The Heart of Western Medicine in Obstetrics". In October 1924, the expansion of the new medical school was completed at a cost of 14,000 pounds. Except for the Rockefeller Building in Beijing, there was probably no medical school in the Far East with such good facilities.
“It’s grand to be a missionary. I have never ceased to thank God for sending me to China, and if I had my life to live over again, I would make the same choice.”
～ Dr. Main
“Regardless of historical grievances, Dr. Main is undoubtedly the founder of Guangji Hospital and he himself, together with Guangji Hospital, has clearly contributed tremendously to the development of Hangzhou's medical system.”
~ The Historical Records, from Guangji hospital to the SAHZU
The memorial pavilion to Dr. Main, and Ms. Main.
the tombstone of Dr. Main, "benevolencer, love and labour
Although he is gone, he has left the story of his life and work to perpetuate his appeal. “He being dead, yet speaketh.”