Basic Information

Dr. Margaret Chung is the first female American-born Chinese physician in the United States. She was considered the adoptive “mom” of hundreds of military personnel during World War II, and her connections allowed for her advocacy of the WAVES (Women Accepted to Volunteer Emergency Service), or the women’s group of the Navy. She faced considerable discrimination for her gender, race, and presumed sexuality throughout the course of her life, and was never formally recognized for any of her contributions. She passed away at age 69 on January 5th, 1959.

Background Information

Born in 1889 in Santa Barbara, California, to Chinese immigrants, Margaret Chung was the first of eleven children. Raised a devout Christian, she strived to become a medical missionary to China (Wagner, 2022). Working through both college and medical school with the University of Southern California, she received her M.D. in 1916. Her application to become a missionary was denied by the Presbyterian church on the basis of her race three times (Chhita, 2023). She would later open a private practice in San Francisco’s Chinatown after working as a surgical nurse in Chicago, and later a plastic surgeon for railway accident victims at the Santa Fe Railroad Hospital in Los Angeles (Wagner, 2022).

Contributions to the First Wave

Dr. Chung’s direct contributions to the First Wave, as in prior to 1920, are relatively small due to her age. However, an article for the Southern Herald in 1912 reported that she was “at the head of the movement which proposes to form an organization of American women for the purpose of assisting and encouraging the women in China in making the best use of their newly acquired right to the ballot (Walker, 2022).” She was also noted to have been a part of the Women’s Auxiliary League of the Chinese American League of Justice and the Chinese Women’s Reform Club.

There are two factors that Dr. Chung is primarily remembered as being; a doctor, and a patriot, to both her country of origin and her country of heritage. One of her goals with opening her clinic in San Francisco’s Chinatown was to service Chinese women (Wagner, 2022), despite her western treatments and suspected lesbianism making those in her area skeptical. However, she was very good at attracting non-Chinese clients who were interested in seeking “Oriental medicine” from her. Celebrity patients started coming in, and her notoriety built because of it. In 1925, this, along with years of fund raising, allowed for the creation of the San Francisco Chinese Hospital, of which Dr. Chung was “one of four department heads, leading the gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics unit (Chhita, 2023).”

In 1931, her war efforts truly began, hallmarked by the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war and the Manchurian invasion. An American ensign in the Navy Reserves requested her help in acquiring a commission in the Chinese military, and despite not having the influence required to grant him his request, she nonetheless hosted him and six of his military friends for dinner, a tradition that would only grow from there (Wagner, 2022). By the end of World War II, her Sunday dinners consisted of over 1,500 servicemen that she informally ‘adopted’ as her sons, whom she called the “Fair Haired Bastards” (Chhita, 2023). She also frequently volunteered to become a front line surgeon in China throughout this time period, although her requests were denied. Instead, she was tasked with secretly recruiting American pilots that would fly under Chinese colors (Wagner, 2022).

Throughout the course of her life, Dr. Chung would also face criticism and scrutiny for suspicions of being a lesbian. Starting in college, she began to dress in a more masculine fashion, and reinvented herself as “Mike” in order to be better perceived by her peers there (Chhita, 2023), she would also frequent speakeasies and cafes in the North Beach of San Francisco that were known to be part of the growing queer subculture (Wagner, 2022). She was also friends with known lesbians at the time, such as poet Elsa Gidlow. These rumors about her sexuality served to further isolate Dr. Chung from her Chinatown community.

Never one to be underestimated, Dr. Chung’s largest offering to the feminist movement was after the start of the second World War. In 1942, she was denied enlistment in the Navy, something she desperately wanted to do in order to support the war effort. So, using the connections granted to her by her “sons,” she was able to create and pass the legislation that would allow women to enlist in the WAVES, or Women Accepted to Volunteer Emergency Service (Walker, 2022). This was the revolutionary branch of the US Naval Reserves that allowed women for the first time to serve in the war outside of nursing, and with the admittance of female officers to oversee their work (Cipolloni, 2017). However, despite her influence on the formation of the WAVES, and despite no formal policy on race being written into its creation, Dr. Chung was still barred from joining due to her being Chinese (Wagner, 2022).  

Any woman surgeon . . . bucks heavy odds of lay prejudice and professional resentment at usurpation of what many consider to be a man’s undisputed field and when that woman is an American of Chinese descent she is granted even fewer mistakes and less leisure.

-Margaret Chung, Los Angeles Times, 1939 (Walker, 2022).

 Analysis and Conclusion

Dr. Margaret Chung is a somewhat forgotten figure in women’s history. Her contributions to the war efforts were enormous, and despite not having a direct role in the period of time considered to be the “First Wave,” her ongoing contribution of the creation of the WAVES exceeds any time frame that could be given. Most of what could be described as “feminism” from Dr. Chung comes from her being unapologetically herself; by becoming a physician, she became the “first” female, American-born doctor of Chinese descent, and despite the opposition she faced for her gender, race, and sexuality, she remained dedicated to the causes she held dear. She was and continues to be an incredible woman that should be used as an example for people to follow.

References

Chhita, N. (2023, September 19). Overlooked No More: Margaret Chung, Doctor Who Was ‘Different From Others’. The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/obituaries/margaret-chung-overlooked.html

Cipolloni, D. (2017, March 3). Remembering Navy WAVES During Women’s History Month. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/1102371/remembering-navy-waves-during-womens-history-month/

File:Dr. Margaret Chung, surgeon and physician, who helped men get into the Chinese Air Force, WWII (23126603226).jpg. (2023, October 6). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 06:59, December 1, 2023 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Dr._Margaret_Chung,_surgeon_and_physician,_who_helped_men_get_into_the_Chinese_Air_Force,_WWII_(23126603226).jpg&oldid=809388809.

File:Margaret Chung (Los Angeles Herald, 14 Oct 1914) (cropped).png. (2020, October 11). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 06:53, December 1, 2023 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Margaret_Chung_(Los_Angeles_Herald,_14_Oct_1914)_(cropped).png&oldid=486713625.

Wagner, E. (2022, May 7). Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung (U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved October 27, 2023, from https://www.nps.gov/people/dr-margaret-mom-chung.htm

Walker, M. (2022, May 31). Dr. Margaret Chung: First American Born Chinese Woman Physician | Headlines and Heroes. Library of Congress Blogs. Retrieved October 27, 2023, from https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/05/dr-margaret-chung/