Nellie Yip Quong (1882 – 1949)

Nellie (Towers) Yip Quong was a revered midwife, feminist and social activist. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Yip Quong was teaching English in New York when she met her future husband, Charlie Yip Quong, a Chinese jeweller from Vancouver. The two married in 1900 during a time of racial intolerance towards Chinese Canadians in which interracial marriages were rare. They travelled to China, then settled in Vancouver in 1904. Yip Quong immersed herself in her new life, learning five Chinese dialects and acquainting herself with the health and social challenges facing her adopted community due to racism. A champion and outspoken advocate for Vancouver's Chinese immigrant population, she served as midwife in the births of more than 500 Chinese-Canadian babies and arranged adoptions for those born to single mothers. Yip Quong was eventually hired by the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver to serve as the Chinese's community's first public health nurse.

“I have given up a whole lot to know my husband’s people and it took a long time to win their confidence... Oh I tell you it was often distressing.”