Speaker：Prof. Carol Tsang (HKU)
Paper Title: Picturing Chinese Women: Richard Tottenham and his Medical Writings in Interwar Hong Kong

Abstract：

In 1934, Richard Tottenham, an Irish obstetrician and the first Professor of Obstetrics (1924‒35) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), published an article about maternity work in China. He claimed, ‘The typical Chinese woman is lightly built, her hips are narrow, the breasts very flat, and the pubic hair scanty, or even entirely absent. She is, therefore, by nature quite in keeping with the present day fashion of slimming.’ To make it clear, he continued, ‘Although the Chinese women have flat breasts, there is usually plenty of milk for the infant; which suggests that the large flabby breasts, seen typically in the women of Southern European races have little advantage from a nursing point of view.’ This long and sarcastic quote characterises many of Tottenham’s writings in both local and international journals, such as the Irish Journal of Medical Science and the Caduceus (the journal of the HKU Medical Society). Using case histories, he depicted the physique, health conditions, and daily habits of Chinese women in interwar Hong Kong. He revealed to the English-speaking population the lives of these women, generally of Cantonese origin, who were mainly confined in homes and lived separate lives from their counterparts in other Chinese provinces.

This paper explores Tottenham’s medical writings and shows how his portrayal of Chinese women was torn between his dismissive views of the Chinese on the one hand, and his fascination with Chinese society on the other. As an Irish obstetrician at HKU, a British institution, he upheld the Irish medical practice while seeking to inculcate modern, hygienic behaviour in Chinese women through medical intervention. His writings, rather than being simply case histories, demonstrate efforts to categorise and construe colonial subjects in Hong Kong. The paper concludes by examining how political and social tensions in interwar Hong Kong shaped Tottenham’s views of Chinese women and his medical career.