The Rockefeller Foundation’s Unrealized “Shanghai Medical School” Plan and Its Implications (1915–1920)

This study aims to explore the Rockefeller Foundation (RF)’s vision for medical education in China through an analysis of the “Shanghai Medical School” proposal and to evaluate the implications of its abandonment on both medical education in Shanghai and the activities of the RF. In 1914, the RF established the China Medical Board (CMB) as a division of the Foundation for the purpose of developing modern medicine in China. Subsequently, the RF, through its CMB, sought to establish medical schools in Beijing (北京) and Shanghai (上海) as pivotal centers for the dissemination of American-style medical education. In Beijing, the CMB took over the management and operation of Peking Union Medical College (北京協和醫學院, PUMC) in 1915. In Shanghai, the plan was to integrate the existing St. John’s University–Pennsylvania Medical School (聖約翰大學-賓夕法尼亞醫學院), and the Harvard Medical School of China (HMSC), both located in Shanghai, with the Jinling University Medical School (金陵大學醫學院) in Nanjing (南京) into a single institution named “Shanghai Medical School.” However, this ambitious initiative ultimately proved unsustainable. The RF encountered insurmountable challenges precipitated by post-war global circumstances, including unprecedented exchange rates, escalating costs of building materials and equipment, and critical human resource constraints. Additionally, medical schools in the United States and Europe necessitated support from the RF. Consequently, the RF elected to terminate the “Shanghai Medical School” initiative and consolidate its efforts in China exclusively on PUMC in Beijing. Although the establishment of “Shanghai Medical School” failed, the process from proposal to abandonment yielded significant insights into the history of modern medical education in China. First, it offers a novel perspective on the relationship between the RF and missionary societies. Second, it represented a turning point that encouraged Chinese medical elites to pursue an independent education system, with the establishment of the National Shanghai Medical College (國立上海醫學院) in the 1930s serving as a notable example of this shift. Notably, even prior to the plan’s cancellation, PUMC had already been the central focus of the RF’s medical education policy in China, receiving concentrated investment that positioned it as the core of its elite training strategy. While the cancellation did not initiate this focus, it reinforced it by enabling the CMB to channel its resources more fully into PUMC, thereby cementing its reputation as the “Johns Hopkins of Asia.”