Karen Gormsen

In November 1906, arrived in Antung and began working at the newly founded Danish hospital as a midwife.^[1][3][4][5] Responsible for the women's ward, Gormsen began taking in abandoned children.^[1] Word of Gormsen's actions spread and children began being left outside the hospital, the majority of whom were girls due to son preference.^[1][5] Inspired by the baby hatches used by the Fødselsstiftelsen in Copenhagen, Gormsen installed a hatch at the now completed Danish hospital in 1908.^[1][6][7][5]

In recognition of her work during the 1909 cholera epidemic, Gormsen was awarded a plot of land by the Antung authorities.^[1][5] Gormsen built an orphanage on the land which was officially opened in 1916.^[1][5] Until 1931, the orphanage was supported by both private Danish donations and the Antung authorities.^[1][6]

Gormsen continued to run the orphanage throughout the Japanese and Soviet occupation of Antung.^[1][5] In the aftermath of the Second World War the orphanage housed around 300 children.^[5] Following the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Gormsen began trying try to place children in private homes.^[1] In 1950, Gormsen was declared a counter-revolutionary by the Chinese Communist Party and the orphanages remaining children were forcibly sent for re-education.^[5][4][8] In December 1950, Gormsen left China.^[1] Gormsen's memoirs My Children in China was posthumously published in 1961.^[6] In 1980, Gormsen was posthumously rehabilitated.^[1]

On 2 December 1960 Gormsen died in Copenhagen, aged 80.^[1]