Harbin Medical University visit

Every few years, Penang seems to rediscover Dr Wu Lien Teh. Not because we forgot him, but because something happens out there in the world that suddenly makes what he did a century ago feel very current again. With Harbin Medical University celebrating its 100th anniversary soon, that old Penang connection has come back into view, and this time it came in the form of students and lecturers travelling all the way from northern China just to stand in front of a statue on our island.

Wu Lien Teh was born in Penang, studied in Cambridge and then went where he was most needed. In 1910, when a deadly pneumonic plague broke out in north-east China, killing people by the tens of thousands, he was sent to Harbin with almost nothing but a clear head. People didn’t understand how the disease spread, didn’t believe in masks or quarantine and certainly didn’t want to hear about cremation. Wu studied the outbreak, figured out it spread through the air and insisted people protect themselves. He designed a simple thick gauze mask that anyone could make. That plain-looking mask would later be recognised as the forerunner of today’s surgical masks and respirators.

When the deaths continued, Wu made a decision that went strongly against custom. He ordered the cremation of bodies to stop the disease from spreading further. It was controversial, but it worked. By early 1911, the plague was brought under control and deaths had stopped. That episode alone would have secured his place in history, but Wu didn’t leave after the crisis passed. He stayed on, built public health systems and trained doctors. In 1926 he founded what would later become Harbin Medical University.

War eventually forced him back to Penang, where he lived out his later years quietly, practising medicine while his reputation grew overseas. He passed away in 1960, long before the world rediscovered masks during Covid-19. But when the pandemic came, many people were surprised to learn that the idea of mass mask-wearing had a Penang-born doctor at its roots.

This week, students from Harbin Medical University visited Penang as part of their centennary build-up. They laid flowers at Wu’s statue outside the Penang Institute, met the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society and tried to understand the place that molded the man who shaped their university. For them, Penang was not just another stop, but the starting point of their institution’s story.

State exco Wong Hon Wai spoke about how Penang and Harbin are tied together by Wu’s life and work. He reminded the audience that Penang has long recognised Wu’s contribution, through the Dr Wu Lien Teh Society, through roads and housing areas named after him and through the statue presented by Harbin Medical University years ago. Last year, when Dr Zhong Nanshan came to Penang to receive the Wu Lien Teh award for leadership in public health, it felt less like an honour being handed out and more like a torch being passed on.

What surprised some was how few people still know Wu’s story. China’s deputy consul-general in Penang admitted she only found out he was Malaysian after working here. Her hope was that his life could be told in more accessible ways, through short videos, documentaries or films, so that more people understand why he matters.

As Penang builds more direct air links with cities in China, these old connections become easier to renew. Harbin Medical University will mark its 100th anniversary later this year, but the story it is celebrating began much earlier, on this island. And every time students return to Penang to look for Wu Lien Teh, we are reminded that some Penangites never really leave, even when history carries them far away.