Zhou Meiyu

Zhou Meiyu (1910–2001) was a Chinese nurse, known as "the mother of military nursing in China" and "among the most influential Chinese nurses of the early twentieth century". She was the founder of the Army School of Nursing at the Emergency Medical Service Training School in Guiyang, a strong proponent of military nursing during and after the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, and the first woman in the Republic of China to attain the rank of major general (, ). Xu Nanli, an adjunct professor at National Yang-Ming University who studied under her, described her as the "Nightingale of China".

Early life and education Zhou was born in Beijing in 1910 and attended Peiyuan Primary School, Bridgeman Girls High School, and Yanjing University, all Christian missionary schools in Beijing. She is originally from a town just south of Hangzhou.

In 1938, she was offered the position of dean at the PUMC School of Nursing. However, she declined this position in order to join the Chinese effort against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In September 1937, she fled Dingxian with other members of the Mass Education Movement (MEM), including nurses in her training, as the city came under attack from Japanese forces. The group relocated to Changsha, where MEM services, including nursing, pivoted to national defense work. Following this, she was appointed to the position of chief nursing consultant to the MRC and head of the nursing department of the newly-founded Emergency Medical Service Training School (EMSTS) in Guiyang.

Founding the Army Nursing School During her time at the Emergency Medical Service Training School (EMSTS), Zhou became a vocal proponent of founding an Army Nursing School.

After the Chinese Communist Party's 1949 victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Nationalist Party government, its army, and associated institutions including the National Defense Medical Center, relocated to Taiwan.

Personal life

After the Chinese Civil War, she took her mother to Taiwan and lived in Keelung.

Earlier she was a friend to Major Edith Nie Sih, who had very similar credentials. It is worth noting another classmate Ka Shu Hsu (徐蔼诸), who was also a student at Columbia University, was involved in US fund raising opened several nursing schools in China. Mme Chiang Kai-shek's photos with Zhou were found.

Most of her activities, however centered around school and students. She never married. She was a devout Christian, attending Grace Baptist Church, in Taipei, Taiwan. She wrote memoirs about herself and how she created nursing school and accomplishment during World War II in China. Her memoirs were published in 1993.