Abstract for Bethune’s Spirit presentation

Nanjing University of Finance and Economics

November 12, 2009

Larry Hannant

University of Victoria and Camosun College, Victoria

In the 70 years since he died in China, Dr. Norman Bethune has not been forgotten either in his native country, Canada, or in China.  But his recognition and fame have not been consistent.  The pattern that can be observed is that the political environments in both countries over the decades have influenced how he has been remembered.  This paper traces his fame in Canada and comments upon the contemporary image of him.

Abstract for The Women Who Made Norman Bethune presentation

Nanjing University of Finance and Economics

November 12, 2009

Larry Hannant

University of Victoria and Camosun College, Victoria

One of the most common ideas associated with Dr. Norman Bethune is that he was a womanizer who was both attractive to women and addicted to the sexual conquest of various women.  Whether it be popular media such as film or written biographies, the view of Bethune is that he regarded women as sexual objects.  A closer study of historical records, however, points to a very different practice.  Women who knew Bethune during his life recall him as being less sexist than his contemporaries and indeed a man who treated women as equals.  This paper reexamines the image of Bethune as womanizer and the reality of his relations with women.  As part of a more extensive study of Bethune and the women who knew and shaped him, it addresses his relations with two influential women.  These are his mother, Elizabeth Goodwin, and Jean Ewen, the Canadian nurse who travelled with Bethune to China in 1938.