Nursing Home

Nursing Home

No. 279 in the southeast area of Sun Yat-sen University is a slightly aged red-brick building named the “Madam Ma Yingbiao Nursing Home.” On the front wall of the nursing home, there are two commemorative stone plaques embedded on each side, inscribed respectively with the Chinese regular script “Commemorative Stone of the Madam Ma Yingbiao Nursing Home, Engraved in the 7th Year of the Republic of China” and the English “COLLEGEINFIRARYGIVNEINHONOROFHVWIFEBYMAYINGPIVTRVSEEAD1918,” restoring the appearance of the nursing home at the time of its initial construction. On the left red-brick pillar in front of the main entrance is a stone plaque engraved with “Expanded by the Ma Yingbiao Memorial Association, December 21, 1990,” while on the right red-brick pillar is a vertical stone plaque in regular script reading “Nursing Home,” inscribed by the renowned calligrapher and our university’s Mr. Liao Yunyu, recording the donation and expansion by the Ma family descendants. All four stone plaques are carved in relief on grayish-white marble slabs with the inscriptions filled in dark green, quietly and plainly documenting nearly a century of changes at the nursing home.

Adjacent to the nursing home, the Outpatient Department of the South Campus (formerly the University Hospital) at No. 277 in the southeast area was expanded and built by the university using self-raised funds in 1991, located southwest of the sanatorium. The main entrance is embedded with a white stone plaque, inscribed in running script gold characters reading “Sun Yat-sen University Hospital,” written by Professor Zhang Zhenlin, a paleographer and calligrapher from our university. The font is elegant and dynamic, as if a phoenix were dancing.

Early buildings within the Kang Le Yuan were mostly donated by foreigners. Starting with the completion of the Madam Ma Yingbiao Nursing Home, Chinese overseas and compatriots gradually became the main donors. The Madam Ma Yingbiao Nursing Home was donated by Mr. Ma Yingbiao, General Manager of the Sincere Company and a member of the American New York Board of Directors of Lingnan School, in memory of his wife, Madam Huo Qingtang, and was completed in 1919. In 1990, the Ma Yingbiao Memorial Association donated 280,000 RMB to expand the nursing home, and the completion ceremony was held in front of the nursing home on December 21, 1990.