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Story: Health practitioners

First Chinese medical graduate

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First Chinese medical graduate

In 1929, Kathleen Anneui Phi-Chang was the first person of Chinese descent to graduate in medicine in New Zealand. She studied at the Otago School of Medicine in Dunedin. In later life she worked as a medical missionary, taught at universities in Shanghai and Singapore, and worked in private practice in Hong Kong.

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Hocken Collections, University of Otago

Reference: S10-152b - MS-1537/690

Permission of the Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

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How to cite this page

Allison Kirkman, Health practitioners – Medical practitioners, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/28323/first-chinese-medical-graduate (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Allison Kirkman, published 29 March 2011, updated 28 April 2026.