Kin Yamei facts for kids
Kin Yamei (born in 1864 – died March 4, 1934) was an amazing woman. She was born in China but grew up in America. She became a doctor, managed hospitals, taught others, and was an expert in nutrition. She is famous for introducing tofu to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) during World War I.
Early Life and Education
Kin Yamei was born in 1864 in Ningbo, China. When she was two years old, she lost her parents during a cholera outbreak. American missionaries, Divie Bethune McCartee and Juana M. Knight McCartee, adopted her. They encouraged her to keep her Chinese name and learn both Chinese and English. She also learned to speak Japanese and French.
She attended the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. This school was started by Elizabeth Blackwell, a famous doctor. Kin Yamei graduated at the top of her class in 1885. She was the first Chinese woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. This happened in 1888. The Chinese Consul even attended her graduation to celebrate her achievement. After this, she continued her studies in Philadelphia and Washington, D. C. She also learned photography and wrote an article about medical photo-micrography while still in medical school.
Career and Contributions
From 1890 to 1894, Kin Yamei managed a hospital for women and children in Kobe, Japan. She was recovering from malaria during this time. Later, she became the superintendent at a women's hospital in Tianjin, China. There, she also started a training program for nurses. In 1907, she founded the Northern Medical School for Women in Zhili.
Kin Yamei also gave many talks in the United States. She spoke about Chinese culture, women's roles, and medicine. She gave a speech to the Los Angeles Medical Association. She also spoke at Carnegie Hall, a very famous venue. She wrote articles for magazines and newspapers. One article was about Honolulu's Chinatown in Overland Monthly (1902). Another was about soybeans in the New-York Tribune (1904).
During World War I, she worked with the USDA in the United States. She helped them find new ways to use soybeans for food and other purposes. She was key in introducing tofu to American food scientists. In 1904, she also spoke at an international Peace Conference in New York City.
Personal Life
Kin Yamei married Hippolytus Laesola Amador Eca da Silva in Japan in 1894. He was a merchant and interpreter from Hong Kong. They divorced in 1904. They had one son named Alexander, who was born in 1895 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Sadly, Alexander died in 1918 while serving as an American soldier in World War I in France. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Kin Yamei spent her later years in Beijing. She passed away from pneumonia in 1934, at the age of 70.
See also
In Spanish: Kin Yamei para niños
