Women's Activism NYC

Yamei Kin

1864 - 1934

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Yamei Kin was a Chinese born American doctor. Yamei Kin was also the Doctor who had brought Tofu to America, she was a scientific prodigy and promoted Chinese Art to the U.S. audiences. Kin was famous, and was famous in the press, she had went to China to investigate the use of tofu and had a headline on June 10, 1917 where New York Times magazine had claimed that "Woman Off to China as Government Agent to Study Soy Bean: Dr. Kin Will Make Report for United States on the Most Useful Food of her Native Land." Kin's tofu was also experimented and had became home for many dinners, and couldn't tell the difference between the fish and the pork chops. She had also mentioned that if you're taste didn't mathc with the soybean, you can change it to any flavor you would like. Yamei was sent as a agent of the U.S. government to China. Kin was born in 1864 and her parents had converted to Christianity, and had passed away when she was two. She was taken into a family of a medical missionary McCartee and he thought at an nascent University of Tokyo, he was an professor of natural science and Kin had spent most of her childhood in Japan as well as China. At the age of 16, May had taken some preparatory class and was enrolled in Women's Medical College in New York and wore high-collared Victorian dresses, spoke five languages and graduated in 1885 on top of her class. She was the first Chinese woman to have earned a U.S. medical degree. May had also traveled to Amoy known as Xiamen, China in 1887. Her plan was to duplicate Blackwell's achievement of a special hospital for women and children, but she havn't had enough support from the churchgoers. In 1894, Kin had gotten married to Hipolite Eca Da Silva who was a musician. They had moved to Hawai'i and had their first son who was Alexander and she had also applied for a medical license where she had gotten a letter back from Reverend F.W. Damon stating, Chinese lady has proved that she is able so thoroughly to acquire the training of our Anglo-Saxon civilization.” Yamei Kin was a speaker as she had traveled from places in the U.S. The post had commented that she had "delivered a lecture at the residence of Senator Kean before an audience representative of all that is best in Washington society."

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