Diana Yueh-ming (Tan) Chang

Diana Yueh-Ming (Tan) Chang

Diana Yueh-ming Chang (née Tan 譚月明) died peacefully in her Brookline home on February 20, 2025. She was born February 24, 1924 in Hankow, Hubei Province, China to Frank Dzu-wu Tan 譚祖武 and Jingqing Le 樂鏡清. As a girl she attended St. Hilda’s Middle School, the American Episcopal missionary girls’ school in nearby Wuchang that (with the Boone School for boys) served both Chinese and American students. Outside of school, Diana also helped pay for private school tuition for her two younger sisters by working at the local post office and at her uncle’s ice cream and confectionery company called Hazelwood, where her father was Assistant Manager. This well-known company, known by its Chinese brand names Meidi 美的 and Beauty 美女牌, supplied desserts and other treats for the Western-style restaurants in Hankow and nationally.

When the Sino-Japanese War expanded in 1938 to threaten Hankow and Wuchang, Diana’s father moved the entire family south to Changsha in Hunan Province, where Diana attended Fuxiang Middle School for Girls 福湘女中学. By 1939 she joined the students of the Hankow Diocesan Union School (including Boone School, St. Hilda’s, and several others) in making the arduous journey through south China and northern Vietnam, finally reaching the remote village of Zhennan 鎮南 in western Yunnan. In Zhennan, missionaries had established the Lianzhong Combined Middle School 西南联合中 so students could continue their studies far from the threat of the Japanese army. For many students, the experience was life changing. As would later be reported in the missionary journal The Chinese Recorder in August 1940, “The students helped with the work of the Anglican Church; they came to know directly what rural life means. ‘Go into the country’ is a slogan of students and in villages they learned what it meant. They saw the life of farmers—simple, full of hardship and suffering, but worked out in a patient willing spirit and this will always remain a living lesson to our students. This could hardly have been learned on the St. Hilda’s and Boone Compounds.”

After high school, Diana entered National Central University Medical College 國立中央大學醫學院 in Nanjing, earning her BS in 1944 and her MD degree in 1948. When she completed medical school, the Chinese civil war was still raging. Dr. Tan had little interest in politics, later comparing her feelings to Deng Xiaoping’s comment, “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.” She admired the freedoms enjoyed by Americans and decided to write to a former American pen pal expressing her desire to study in the United States. Through her pen pal’s father’s connections with the church and local hospitals, she was able to apply for a medical internship in Philadelphia.

During the Chinese civil war between the Nationalist (KMT) and Communist governments, emigrating from China was challenging. Raised in Episcopal missionary schools, Diana would later describe how afraid she was of mentioning her emigration plans to the authorities. In the fall of 1949, she and several friends stole a small fishing boat at Shanghai and set out during the afternoon to make it look like an ordinary fishing trip. Without sail or motor, they floated for 28 days, living on seafood and rice as they drifted among deserted islands, often dodging bullets shot by Communist and Nationalist (KMT) troops. They finally made it to Amoy (present-day Xiamen, 600 miles south of Shanghai)) but Diana was detained there by suspicious Nationalist troops and held for investigation. By pure chance, Diana ran into a soldier who had been a classmate of hers, and he was able to vouch for her and her friends so that Diana was able to continue her journey south to Hong Kong. She eventually booked passage on the steamship General W.H. Gordon in November 1949 from Hong Kong to Honolulu to San Francisco. She then continued by train to Philadelphia to take up her internship at Methodist Episcopal Hospital, followed by additional training at Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati.

In 1952, Dr. Diana Tan married Dr. Te-wen Chang 張德汶, a former schoolmate from National Central University, and she moved to Boston where she trained in Radiology at Boston University Medical School from 1955 to 1958. She was Assistant Radiologist at Rhode Island Hospital and Associate Radiologist at New England Memorial Hospital (Stoneham, MA) from 1961-1966. She worked in the radiology departments at Rhode Island Hospital (Providence) and New England Memorial Hospital (Stoneham, MA) from 1961-1966. She then accepted a position at St. John’s Hospital (now Lowell General Hospital) in Lowell, MA. During her time at St. John’s, she published a paper on the characteristics associated with chicken pox pneumonia found on x-ray, and another on computed tomography (CT) in radiology. In the mid-1970s, St. John’s was one of the first hospitals in Massachusetts to use the CT scanning technology in the early 1970s, and she became highly proficient in CT diagnosis.

Dr. Diana Tan retired in 1992 and loved spending time with her children and grandchildren. She often remarked how much she enjoyed living in the Boston area for more than 70 years. She was predeceased by her husband Te-wen Chang (d. Jan. 12, 2025), and is survived by her two sisters, Yuehua Tan 譚月華 (Xi’an, China), and Yueyun Tan 譚月运 (Nanjing, China); her children Lynn Chang (Lisa Wong), Frank Chang, Joseph Chang (Sylvia Ong), Janet Chang (Robert Murowchick), and Catherine Chang (Frank Lee), and her grandchildren Jennifer Chang (Solon Gordon), Christopher Chang, Michael Murowchick (Ishani Gnanakone), Andrew Murowchick, Kevin Chang, Nicole Chang, Melissa Lee, and Jonathan Lee, and two great-grandchildren, Casey and Annalise.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 12 at 10:30 a.m. at Newton Cemetery and Arboretum, 791 Walnut St, Newton, MA 02459.  

In lieu of flowers, donations in Diana’s memory may be made to the Massachusetts Medical Society and Alliance Charitable Foundation, supporting initiatives that reflect her dedication to the field of medicine. Contributions can be made online at https://donate.mmsfoundation.org/donate or by mail to 860 Winter St, Waltham, MA  02451.

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