Chung, Madeline
Dr. Madeline Chung was both the first Chinese Canadian and the first female obstetrician and gynecologist in British Columbia. Trained at the Yale-in-China Medical School in Hunan, China, she came to Canada shortly after the repeal of The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 in order to intern in Victoria, British Columbia and Montreal, Quebec. After completing her education at the renowned Mayo Clinic in the United States, Dr. Chung permanently immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia in the mid 1950s. A Vancouver bank denied a loan application to open her first practice, for fear that she would get pregnant and default on her loan. Despite this obstacle, Dr. Chung went on to establish a successful solo practice in Vancouver that served new immigrants and women of various ethno-cultural backgrounds. Over her busy forty-year career, Dr. Chung delivered a total of 6,530 children. At the time of the interview, she and her husband, Dr. Wallace Chung, continued to reside in Vancouver.
Dr. Madeline Chung poses for a photo towards the end of her successful forty-year obstetrics practice. She says that she was drawn to medicine because she wanted to 'solve a little bit of the problem of human suffering.' She paved the way for many women in her field – some female children she delivered have entered medicine, and credited her as a role model. Her two children, Dr. Stephen Chung and Dr. Maria Chung, have also become medical doctors.
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