The hospital logo, which can be seen everywhere in China, has aroused the curiosity of foreigners: "Why does your hospital logo look so much like the Swiss flag? We always thought it was some kind of Swiss organization in China and were afraid to go in."
On closer inspection, Chinese hospitals and the Swiss flag, both with white crosses on a red background, do resemble each other. The logos of the vast majority of Chinese hospitals have elements of the cross that are not found in other countries.
More than a hundred years ago, Douw.D.M, an American Presbyterian missionary woman, came to Beijing, where she heard and witnessed the backwardness of the old-fashioned midwives and the havoc they brought to women in labor and their babies. In particular, women and children suffered most from superstitious activities. She once saw a woman in labor who had a difficult delivery and the midwife put a shoe on the child's exposed foot, thinking that the child would then be able to walk out on its own, with the result that both mother and child lost their lives. When the missionary woman saw this scene, she went home and cried. Douw.D.M. returned to the United States, collected money from the Presbyterian Church, and prepared for eight years to raise funds to build China's first women's hospital in Beijing, which would later be known as Daoji Hospital (renamed Beijing No. 6 Hospital in 1949). When Douw.D.M. hung a cross at the entrance of the hospital, after the hospital was established, she actively promoted the new method of midwifery and inoculation, as well as training Chinese medical and nursing staff. Also in 1885, the American Christian Women's Missionary Service, founded the Women's and Children's Hospital outside the West Gate of Shanghai, and in 1901, the Episcopal Church of Christ in the United States founded the Kwong Yan Hospital in Shanghai, which specialized in treating female patients. The new midwifery method greatly reduced the pain of women giving birth to children and greatly increased the survival rate. People trusted the hospitals with the sign of the cross, and even during the Cultural Revolution, the sign of the cross was not removed from the cities and towns of China, and the sign of the cross in Chinese hospitals has been preserved to this day.
People trusted the hospitals with the sign of the cross. Even during the Cultural Revolution, the sign of the cross was not removed from all the cities and towns in China, and the sign of the cross in Chinese hospitals has been preserved to this day. Hospitals during the Cultural Revolution In the early years, the symbol of hospitals in China was the "Red Cross", but this was not allowed internationally. Because, in 1863, the Geneva Conventions clearly stipulated that the "Red Cross" is a "humanitarian aid emblem", which has the effect of international law, other medical institutions are not allowed to use this symbol.
The International Red Cross logoTaking into account the fact that the Red Cross logo has been y rooted in people's minds, China decided to re-design the logo of the medical institution by conceptualizing it around the "cross". I wanted to use the "Green Cross", but the "Green Cross" logo is commonly used by the international pharmaceutical industry, the "Green Cross" has since become the unified logo of China's pharmaceutical retail enterprises. The green cross hangs at the entrance of the pharmacy. I would like to use the blue cross, but the blue cross is the symbol of veterinarians. The blue cross is the symbol of veterinarians. They wanted to use a white cross on a red background, but realized that it was similar to the Swiss flag. In the end, the designers took "how to combine the white cross and the red background in order to be different from the Swiss flag" as a breakthrough, and went through four proposals before finally taking shape.
The Chinese hospital's cross-shaped logo consists of four red hearts with a white border surrounding a white cross. The symbols are: patient-centered in medical institutions,
and protecting and promoting people's health in other health institutions. Among them, the four red heart on behalf of the medical staff to the patient's - love (above, the most noble and most important meaning) patience and care (a left and a right, complementary and indispensable) sense of responsibility
China's modern hospitals originated in the church hospitals. The "cross" of the Chinese hospital symbol is inextricably linked to the Christian "cross.
Today's Chinese hospitals, however, no longer have Christian colors. But the spirit of fraternity at the core of it is something we should hold on to.