Plague Fighter: The autobiography of a modern Chinese physician. Wu Lien-Teh

Brand new 2021 reprint available now!

Known as the ‘Plague Fighter’ and ‘the man who beat the Black Death’, Dr. Wu Lien-Teh (1879—1960) laid the foundations of the modern medical service in China. The son of a Taishan migrant from China, he was born in Penang and attended the Penang Free School. Winning a Queen’s scholarship, he became the first medical student of Chinese descent to be educated at Cambridge, where he graduated from Emmanuel College with string of prizes.

Returning to Malaya, he undertook research into the debilitating beriberi disease and engaged in social reforms, founding the Anti-Opium Society.

It was in northern China that he cemented his global fame, working to curtail the spread of Manchurian Plague which claimed over 60,000 lives in 1910-1911. He became the first president of the Chinese Medical Association and served as physician extraordinary to successive presidents of China. He established some twenty medical institutions in China including Harbin Medical College, Peking Central Hospital and the National Quarantine Service, Shanghai.

He co-authored the acclaimed History of Chinese Medicine (1932) and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1935. He spent his later life in his native Malaya — first in Ipoh, and then in Penang — and his death made headlines around the world.

First published in 1959, this edition of Wu Lien-Teh’s autobiography, reprinted for the Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Society, Penang, will acquaint a new generation of readers with this great man’s life and work.

The book launch. (Image: SS Quah)

In the News

“Dr Wu spent time training in the top bacteriological labs, and was the foremost expert on plague in the world, up till the late 1930s,” David Luesink, assistant professor in East Asian History at the University of Pittsburgh.

Read the full article on David Luesink’s Talk about Dr Wu Lien Teh in The Star Online HERE!

Table of Contents

• Black Death
• Aftermath of the Plague
• Fundamentals of Pneumonic Plague Research
• Three Pneumonic Plague Epidemics Compared
• Childhood and Schooldays
• Cambridge and St. Mary’s
• First Impressions of Europe
• First Return to Malaya
• Introduction to Chinese Official Life
• Peking Days
• The Revolution and its Consequences
• Medical Progress Despite Chaos
• Manchurian Plague Prevention Service
• National Quarantine Service
• Anti-Cholera and Other Health Campaigns
• Building Hospitals in China
• The Narcotic Problem
• Missionary Efforts in China
• Attending International Conferences
• Observations on Various Lands
• Chinese versus Western Medical Practice
• Malaya and Malayans
• Family Life
• Be Contented—Live Long
• Appendix A: List of the delegates attending the International Plague Conferences
• Appendix B: List of Important Publications of the Manchurian Plague Prevention Service
• Appendix C: National Quarantine Servie Reports
• Index of Chinese Persons
• Index of Non-Chinese Persons
• Select Bibliography
• Obituary, The Times, 27 January 1960
• About The Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Society

You might also be interested in:

Memories Of Dr. Wu Lien Teh: Plague Fighter

Wu Yu-lin

Media articles

In 1911, another epidemic swept through China. That time, the world came together

A Malaysian Designed The Original N95 Mask. He Also Stopped A Plague That Killed 60,000

How Malaysian plague fighter Wu Lien-teh laid down lessons for Wuhan virus

Wu Lien-Teh: Malaysia’s little-known plague virus fighter

WU LIEN-TEH The Father of Modern Medicine in China

Don’t forget to check out our on Wu-Lien Teh !