A doctor from faraway Massachusetts is loved by people in Fujian even after more than a century

American missionary doctor Edward Lydston Bliss rides a mule on his way to see patients in Shaowu, Fujian province, in the 1890s.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

American missionary doctor Edward Lydston Bliss landed in China in 1892, and spent the next 40 years in Shaowu, a remote mountainous area in Fujian province, treating the sick and helping build a hospital.

On June 28 last year, President Xi Jinping, in a congratulatory message to the "Bond with Kuliang: 2023 China-U.S. People-to-People Friendship Forum", noted the fact that the last words of Bliss before death were "I love the Chinese".

One year later, on June 28, 2024, an exhibition dedicated to Bliss officially opened to the public in Shaowu.

Bliss's granddaughter Anne Bliss Mascolino was unable to attend the event due to personal reasons, but she thanked everyone for honoring her grandfather.

"What an honor! And so beautifully done!" she wrote in a message to another American guest who was present at the brand new exhibition hall.

Edward Bliss was born in Newburyport on the northern coast of Massachusetts in 1865. In the 1890s, the young Bliss earned his doctorate from Yale School of Medicine.

But instead of practicing medicine in the United States, he chose to travel to faraway China and serve the people as a doctor, because he believed that in the not too distant future, China will regain its rightful place on the global stage and spread its influence worldwide.

In the winter of 1892, Bliss sailed through the Pacific Ocean to reach Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province.

After a short rest, he traveled by ship up the Minjiang River in Fujian and arrived at Shaowu three weeks later in January 1893.

Bliss gave himself the Chinese name Fu Yihua — Fu means "happiness", and Yihua "be helpful to China".