Disability History: New Inspirations and Critical Perspectives in the Study of the History of Medical Missions

Work among people who were blind or had visual impairments was regarded a branch of the medical missionary work in China in late 19th and early 20th century. Medical mission was in fact introduced in China – and in the modern missionary movement – by Peter Parker, a specialist in ophthalmology, the field of medicine that deals with diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the eye. By curing and treating common eye diseases in China, the pioneer medical mission in mid-19th century China had great success. Not all eye diseases could be cured, however. The medical missionaries experienced that despite medical treatment patients lost their sight. At the mission hospitals they moreover received patients who had become blind or had visual impairments due to accidents, injuries, or had been blinded as result of abuse and maltreatment. In addition, numerous children were born blind, or became blind, caused by epidemic diseases like smallpox and measles, deficiency diseases or venereal diseases. Experiences of the medical missionaries from their clinical work, or their encounters with the so called “incurable blind,” encouraged the mission organizations to initiative educational and philanthropical institutions for children and adults who were blind. In this paper the multi-layered motivations for missionary agencies to enter the field of work among blind people in China is accounted for, and it is asked whether loyalties to multiple missionary and colonial programmes - religious, medical, educational, and societal – can be revealed. The history of medical missions’ work among people who were blind can be regarded as part of the emerging field of Disability History. In a second part of this chapter, it is discussed in what ways the field of disability studies and disability history can offer new inspirations and critical perspectives in the study of the history of medical missions.