This paper examines the mission of William Warder Cadbury (1877–1959) to Canton from 1909 to 1937. As a Quaker medical missionary, Cadbury had the freedom to move around Canton and engage himself in the projects that interested him. He used this to engage in a number of public health projects. He had more power to do this inside of Lingnan University than out of it, mapping the limits of private individuals to bring about public health and the way in which Cadbury himself inserted into a debate about the future of Chinese modernity
