Bertha Hosang Mah
Bertha Hosang Mah was a Canadian student, the first Chinese woman to graduate from a Canadian university.
Early life
Hosang was born in Lillooet, British Columbia, the daughter of Lena Hosang. Her older sister recalled, "We were the only Chinese family and there weren't any separate classes in the school, so we talked English all the time."Education
Hosang attended McGill University, first at the Vancouver satellite location, and later at the Montreal campus; when she graduated in 1917, she was described as "the first Chinese woman graduated from a Canadian university". At McGill, she won an award for best speech, from the Women's Literary Society. She also won first prize in a national essay competition, with her article "Physical Education for Chinese Women", which was later published in Chinese Students' Monthly.Hosang was elected to the University Women's Club of Vancouver in 1918, and gave a presentation to the group that year, on "Chinese Literature". Hosang worked as a secretary at the Chinese consulate in Vancouver in 1918 and 1919. Her older sister Myrtle Hosang Lee studied economics at the University of California in Berkeley.