Pioneers' vision

Charles Winfield Service (1872-1930) is another man who left a legacy after living in Sichuan province for generations and devoted his whole life to Chinese medical education.

Service, who graduated as a surgeon from the University of Toronto, reached Chengdu in 1904 with his wife. He was appointed to a newly opened station at Leshan to resume the medical work there. His skill as a surgeon helped patients make an "excellent" recovery.

"He did much to establish the reputation of the missionary surgeon," according to Kenneth Beaton's Great Living, which is a brief biography of Service.

The West China Union University came into being through the vision of several pioneer missionaries in 1910. Omar Kilborn and Charles Service were prominent members of them.

"From the very opening, both of them anticipated that medicine would be taught," Beaton wrote.

In 1912, the Service couple moved to Chengdu to work in the mission hospital and the West China Union University. He was chiefly responsible for the hospital's work and lectured, in Chinese, in three subjects: surgery, gynecology and obstetrics. He translated most of the material as he went along.

In early March 1930, Service fell ill and needed an operation. Students had to do the operation following his own instructions, because there was no other surgeon in Chengdu. Unfortunately, Service died shortly on March 10,1930, after he had worked in China for 26 years. He was buried at the university.

Francie Service, the granddaughter of C. W. Service, told China Daily that it was her grandfather who was responsible for the first dental graduate in China, Huang Tianqi.

"When my grandfather Service met Huang Tianqi as a boy playing outside the hospital in Leshan, he was (so) impressed by Huang's intellect and character that he arranged for Huang to attend school and learn English," she said.

When Huang attended high school, he stayed with Charles Service and John Thompson, Francie Service's maternal grandfather, who was also a dental missionary in Sichuan. Huang became interested in healthcare and under C. W. Service's guidance, he trained as a medical assistant. After spending three years in the medical program, Huang officially registered as a dental student and in 1921, he was awarded the first dental degree in China. Thompson described the moment as the "proudest day" of his life.

Huang received the degree of doctor of dental surgery from the University of Toronto in 1927 with funding arranged by Thompson. Over the years, Huang and Thompson became trusted colleagues, and they worked together to expand the field of dental surgery in China.

"The teaching of dental surgery, by a well-trained Chinese professor, marked the successful diffusion of oral health knowledge and under the leadership of Huang, the foundation for sustainable dental care was established throughout China," says a memoir of the Service family.

Now a sculpture of doctors Huang and Thompson with a patient is displayed at China Museum of Stomatology in Sichuan University, Chengdu.

Francie Service said many second-generation members of the Service family have revisited their Chinese roots where their bicultural memories of residing in China were collocated with their current reality of being observers of modern China.

In May 1978, the Service family organized a tour to China. It was 30 years since Francie Service's parents Bill and Norma, who were both born in Chengdu, had been to China, and the family members still had a strong emotional connection to Chinese society.

"When I put my feet on the first step on Chinese soil, I felt it was my home," Francie Service told China Daily. "That's because of the love of China in my family. My mom and dad grew up there, they taught Chinese and they love China."