Josiah C. McCracken was a physician, a husband and father,
and a college and Olympic athlete. From the plains of Kansas to the
fields of the University of Pennsylvania and the teeming cities of China,
"Mission to Shanghai" introduces you to Joe McCracken, a man of singular
compassion, strength, and devotion to his God, his family, and to medical
service. Supported by the Christian Association of the University of
Pennsylvania, Joe began his service in China in Canton in 1907. However,
he was drawn by the excitement and need for doctors in Shanghai, and
served as a leader at the Medical School of St. John's University from
1914 to 1942.
For Joe and his lifetime partner, Helen Newpher McCracken, living in the
Far East was like living through a moving picture of the revolutionary
history of China and her people. Their life was filled with excitement
and drama, from the joys of family excursions to the struggles to keep
the medical school and hospital open during the Japanese invasion and
occupation. "Mission to Shanghai" is their absorbing tale of love,
dedication, and service, told largely in their own words as they struggle
to maintain family ties and meet the medical needs of the Chinese people.
Repatriated to the U. S. during World War II, Joe returned to China after
the war, helping in the monumental task of revitalizing the medical
department of St. John's, coping with wartime devastation, shortages of
money, fuel, food, supplies, and the vagaries of a communist government.
After his return to the U. S. in 1947, he continued to help the many
Chinese students who came to practice in the United States.
"Mission to Shanghai" offers an array of intriguing themes, from the
constant endeavors to establish a pioneering effort in modern medicine in
China to the challenges of everyday life in a different and changing
cultural and political scene. Paralleling the story of sustaining the
Pennsylvania Medical School of St. John's University is the story of the
family life of Joe and Helen. Together they raised eight children in this
far-off land, sending each of them to the United States for college and
then loving and supporting them from half a world away while missing
graduations and weddings in order to sustain medical training in China.
Woven through their lives is the compelling and especially poignant story
of Mary Elizabeth McCracken, the third of the McCracken's children.
Stricken with infantile paralysis as a child and unable to walk, her
indomitable spirit ultimately led to her graduation from the Pennsylvania
Medical School of St. John's University in Shanghai, and later to her
service in Shanghai as a pediatrician during the trying years leading
into World War II.
Based on archival records of Joe's speeches, annual reports to supporters
and the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania, and on a
wealth of family correspondence, Mission to Shanghai provides absorbing
insight into China and into the heart and mind of this devoted Christian
physician: "If I could I would like to make a great telescope, big enough
so that all Americans could look through it and see the exact conditions
in China at the present time. I would be willing to spend the rest of my
life building that one telescope, because I confidently feel that if the
people of America could see the actual conditions in China hundreds and
thousand of lives would be saved. Yet, that is impossible, and we must be
willing to spend our lives, and we do spend them, in trying in the
ordinary way to make known the needs of that worthy people."
In this book, Helen McCracken Fulcher provides you a window into life in
the most exciting of Chinese cities during one of its most turbulent and
complex periods. Helen is the eldest daughter of Joe and Helen, and her
research and memories of China from 1907 to 1949 provide a perspective to
the story that adds to the richness of the portrayal of family life,
medical service, and Chinese history.
Helen McCracken Fulcher was born in Canton, China (now
Guangzhou) in 1908, the eldest daughter of Dr. Josiah C. McCracken and
his wife Helen Newpher. This story about her parents and their service in
China was completed just before she died on February 3, 1995 at the age
of 87. The final publishing tasks were accomplished by Martha, the
youngest daughter, and her son Michael MacCracken and his wife.
