- Ma Haide (George Hatem)
Ma Haide (Chinese: "Mǎ Hǎidé" 马海德; 1910-1988), born George Hatem, was a doctor and public health official in
China from 1933 until his death.Early life
Ma was born in 1910 to Lebanese immigrant parents living in Buffalo, New York. His parents immigrated from the village of Hamana in the Metn mountains of Lebanon. He attended pre-med classes at the University of North Carolina and medicine at the
American University in Beirut and theUniversity of Geneva . While in Geneva, Ma became acquainted with students fromEast Asia , and learned much about China. With financial help from the parents of one of his friends, he and several others set off to Shanghai to establish a medical practice to concentrate on venereal diseases, as well as basic health care for the needy.Shanghai
Ma set up the practice in
Shanghai in 1933. It was in Shanghai that he met the well known journalist,Agnes Smedley , who introduced him toLiu Ting , a member of theCommunist Party of China . Disgusted by the corruption of Shanghai and theChinese Nationalists , he closed his practice there three years later, and, with the help of the earlier established Communist contacts, was smuggled acrossKuomintang lines to provide medical service toMao Zedong 's Communist troops inSian .Yan'an
Later on, Ma travelled to the Communist headquarters at
Yan'an . He was accompanied by the pioneering American journalistEdgar Snow . At Hatem's request, he was not explicitly mentioned in the first edition of Snow's famous book, "Red Star Over China ". He is there anonymously as a western-trained doctor who had examined Mao and determined he was not dying of some mysterious disease, which was the rumour at the time. He also became the first foreign member of the Chinese Communist Party.He was present at Yan'an, when the
Dixie Mission , an American civilian and military group, arrived in July 1944. Ma was a source of surprise and comfort for many of the Americans when they met the American born physician. Many accounts of the mission make reference to Haide. Known commonly to the group as "Doc Ma," Ma periodically assisted MajorMelvin Casberg in studies of the state of medical treatment in the Communist territories.Post War Life
He remained a doctor with the Communists until their victory in 1949, and then became a public health official. He is credited with helping to eliminate
Leprosy and many venereal diseases in post-war China for which he received theLasker Medical Award for his efforts in 1986. He was one of the few non-Chinese persons to hold a position of trust and authority in the People's Republic of China. His Chinese name can be loosely translated to mean,"Horse" and "Virtue From the Sea".He died in China in 1988 and was buried at the
Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery .References
* Edgar A. Porter, "The People's Doctor: George Hatem and China's Revolution" (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997).
* Snow, Edgar. "The Other Side of the River : Red China Today". New York : Random House, 1962.External links
* [http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/cart/shopcore/?db_name=uhpress&page=shop/flypage&product_id=424&category_id=b3e6237d1b1b3b8594488ed1c40d0dfb&PHPSESSID=21d8e4b22bad39550e9f01bab40a3137 "The People's Doctor", a biography of Ma Haide (George Hatem) by Prof. Edgar A Porter, U of Hawaii]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4020/is_200101/ai_n8943674 Journal of Public Health Policy review of books about Ma Haide, 2001]
* [http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=open_mind&collectionid=openmind_ep622 Open Mind interview]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4020/is_200101/ai_n8943674 Ma Haide, the Saga of American Doctor George Hatem in China]
* [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/22/content_713979.htm Behind "Red Star over China"] (2006 account from "China Daily ")
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