In the late nineteenth century, Canadian missionaries developed a medical training program for Chinese students in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province, in southwestern China. From modest beginnings the training evolved into a medical and dental college at the West China Union University, a joint venture by five Western mission boards. The college provided an institutional setting for the interaction of two cultures and for the transmission of Western medical knowledge.

Minden examines both the process and the long-term implications of this transmission by tracing the history of the college and the careers of its students and faculty.

The school's history is linked to the political turmoil that has troubled China since the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Minden follows the progress of the college from 1888, taking the reader through the Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, the Civil War of 1945-9, and the political upheavals in the People's Republic of China. She also explores the background, motivations, and campus life of both students and faculty, and follows their careers up to 1989.

Based on extensive interviews and archival research in Canada, the United States, and China, this study charts the range of human hope and despair during a turbulent period of history. It contributes to our understanding of the role of Canadian medical missionaries as agents of change in pre-revolutionary China, and elucidates the cross-cultural transfer of technological knowledge.