Kin Yamei (; 1864 – March 4, 1934) also seen as Chin Ya-mei or Jin Yunmei, or anglicized as Y. May King, was a Chinese-born, American-raised doctor, hospital administrator, educator, and nutrition expert. She is credited with introducing tofu to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) during World War I.
Early life Kin Yamei was born in 1864, in Ningbo. Her father, Rev. Kying Ling-yiu (Chin Ding-yu), was a Christian convert. When she was two years old she was orphaned during the cholera epidemic; she was adopted by American missionaries, Divie Bethune McCartee and Juana M. Knight McCartee. They encouraged her to use her given name, and to learn Chinese as well as English; she also learned to speak Japanese and French. She attended the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, founded by Elizabeth Blackwell, where she graduated at the top of her class in 1885.Untitled news item, Hospital Gazette and Students' Journal (June 20, 1885): 193.Biography at SoyInfo CenterUntitled news item, China Medical Missionary Journal (September 1887): 137. The Chinese Consul attended the graduation ceremony to witness her achievement.Untitled news item, Hospital Gazette and Students' Journal (June 20, 1885): 193. She pursued further study in Philadelphia and Washington, D. C. She also learned photography skills, and published a journal article on medical photo-micrography while she was in medical school.William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, Biography of Yamei Kin M.D. (1864-1934), (Also Known as Jin Yunmei), the First Chinese Woman to Take a Medical Degree in the United States (1864-2016) (Soyinfo Center 2016).
Career
From 1890 to 1894, she ran a hospital for women and children in Kobe, Japan, where she stayed while recovering from malaria. She was superintendent at a women's hospital and nurses' training program at Tianjin."Chinese Women Doctors" New York Times (July 21, 1915): 20. She also founded the Northern Medical School for Women at Zhili, in 1907.
She also lectured in the United States about Chinese culture, women, and medicine,"Dr. Yamei Kin, China's Foremost Woman Physician, Now in U. S." Arizona Daily Star (February 26, 1911): 9. via Newspapers.com including a speech to the Los Angeles Medical Association,"Chinese Woman Physician, Dr. Yamei Kin, To Lecture" Los Angeles Herald (February 23, 1902): 12. and a speech at Carnegie Hall."Chinese Preparing to End Japan's Grip" New York Times (November 28, 1915): 6. She published an article about Honolulu's Chinatown in Overland Monthly (1902), and an article about soybeans in the New-York Tribune (1904). She spent World War I in the United States, working with the USDA on nutritional and other uses for soybeans, and introducing tofu to American food scientists."Woman Off to China as Government Agent to Study Soybean" New York Times (June 10, 1917): 65. She addressed an international Peace Conference in 1904, in New York City."Little Oriental Lady Who Won Peace Conference" New York Times (October 16, 1904): 9.
Personal life Kin Yamei married Hippolytus Laesola Amador Eca da Silva, in 1894 in Japan. Mr. da Silva was a merchant and interpreter born in Hong Kong."Chinese Woman Doctor" Newton Daily Republican (November 20, 1896): 4. via Newspapers.com They divorced in 1904."Cathay Meets American Law" San Francisco Call (August 13, 1904): 14. via Newspapers.com They had a son, Alexander, born in 1895 in Honolulu, Hawaii; he died in 1918 as an American soldier in World War I, in France, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, under the name "Alexander A. Kin". Kin Yamei returned to China and spent her later years in Beijing, and died from pneumonia in 1934, aged 70 years.
References
External links Overlooked No More: Yamei Kin, the Chinese Doctor Who Introduced Tofu to the West – The New York Times Biographical information about Kin Yamei at the Soy Info Center. James Kay MacGregor, "Yamei Kin and her Mission to the Chinese People", The Craftsman 9 November 1905): 242-249.