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Chinese and Western Medicine in Hong Kong: Some Social and Cultural Determinants of Variation, Interaction and Change: (1975)*

Marjorie Topley

Jean DeBernardi (ed.)

in Cantonese Society in Hong Kong and Singapore: Gender, Religion, Medicine and Money

The anthropologist Raymond Firth points out that the observer is faced with the problem of accounting not only for continuity but also change. This chapter adapted this conceptual framework to its ... More

The anthropologist Raymond Firth points out that the observer is faced with the problem of accounting not only for continuity but also change. This chapter adapted this conceptual framework to its analysis. Firth uses it for the analysis of social behavior; but decisions and choices are cognitive events. One might also talk of a cognitive system, and of cognitive structure and organization: the norms people use in classifying and ordering concepts, and the ideas they are able to form on the basis of these norms—the variations possible. The chapter looks at some of these norms and variations in order to understand some aspects of social change and the importance of this change. It examines the official social structures devised for Chinese medicine and Western medicine, the main social and cultural factors which appear to have determined this divergence, and its significance for the people.Less

Christianity and the Global Development of Scientific Medicine

Amanda Porterfield

in Healing in the History of Christianity

The global expansion of Western Christianity coincided with the development of scientific medicine. As scientific discoveries involving asepsis, anesthesia, and infectious disease increased the ... More

The global expansion of Western Christianity coincided with the development of scientific medicine. As scientific discoveries involving asepsis, anesthesia, and infectious disease increased the effectiveness of Western medicine, medical missions became increasingly useful as a means of showing the positive benefits of Christianity and to emulate the compassion of Jesus and his healing ministry.Less

Scorn, Mockery, and Invectives for Chinese Medicine

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

This chapter talks about the lack of respect and criticism for Chinese medicine. Europe's unbelievable enthusiasm in the nineteenth and early twentieth century to gain new knowledge by doing research ... More

This chapter talks about the lack of respect and criticism for Chinese medicine. Europe's unbelievable enthusiasm in the nineteenth and early twentieth century to gain new knowledge by doing research and experiments had no parallel in China's tradition. The peak of this search came during and after World War I, when the imperial powers humiliated China. Several authors and filmmakers at this time of awakening used Chinese medicine as a symbol of their fathers' and grandfathers' most ineffective ways of thinking and put Chinese medicine at the center of their attacks on the structures that were to be overcome. At the end of the 1920s, impetuous and un-Chinese petitions for a referendum were introduced to completely forbid tradition, effective immediately. The decision-makers and the reformers trusted solely in modern Western medicine.Less

Midwifery Training and the Politics of Female Circumcision

Heather Bell

in Frontiers of Medicine in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1899–1940

Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, ... More

Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, recognized practitioners of traditional medicine as agents who could be reformed: it sought to create a class of modern, trained Sudanese midwives, out of, and in rivalry to, an entrenched class of traditional midwives known as dayas. Such a transformation required constant and explicit engagement with Sudanese people, and their cultural norms about gender roles and intimate practices such as childbirth and female circumcision. This chapter argues that the interaction between traditional and Western medicine, and between Sudanese and British cultures engendered by midwifery training and practice in the colonial context, was highly complex and constantly being negotiated. It shows that hierarchies of gender, race, occupation, and class disciplined the medical service's employment of non-European personnel. In addressing the government's handling of the controversial matter of female circumcision, the chapter also provides evidence of the rigid boundary sometimes drawn between medicine and politics in Sudan.Less

Introduction

Sean Hsiang-lin Lei

in Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity

Chapter 1 introduces the central puzzle of the book: How was Chinese medicine transformed from an antithesis of modernity in the early twentieth century into a potent symbol for China’s exploration ... More

Chapter 1 introduces the central puzzle of the book: How was Chinese medicine transformed from an antithesis of modernity in the early twentieth century into a potent symbol for China’s exploration of its own modernity half a century later? To answer this question, this book strives to go beyond the conventional framework of dual history, that is, a clear-cut separation between the modern history of Chinese medicine and that of Western medicine in China. Far from being a “remnant” of pre-modern China, Chinese medicine co-evolved with Western medicine and the Nationalist state, undergoing a profound transformation that qualified it to be recognized as modern Chinese Medicine. While this newly created modern Chinese medicine was stigmatized by its opponents as a mongrel form of medicine that was “neither donkey nor horse” it helped to shape the notion of modernity that came to be historically realized in China, that is, China’s modernity.Less

Visualizing Health Care in 1930s Shanghai

Sean Hsiang-lin Lei

in Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity

Instead of treating “Chinese medicine” and “Western medicine” as well-established distinct groups, Chapter 6 argues that these two styles of medicine took shape only gradually as they competed with ... More

Instead of treating “Chinese medicine” and “Western medicine” as well-established distinct groups, Chapter 6 argues that these two styles of medicine took shape only gradually as they competed with each other vis-a-vis the state. To support this argument, this chapter explores a fascinating diagram of the healthcare landscape in 1930’s Shanghai that was created in 1933 by Pang Jingzhou, a vocal critic of Chinese medicine. By way of discussing more than forty items listed in this diagram, Chapter 6 shows both the remarkable heterogeneity within these two styles of medicine, and the complicated inter-group dynamics among them. As this diagram includes folk medicine and religious practices, it furthermore shows how modern Chinese medicine purged itself of these healthcare practices and thereby re-emerged as a national entity from this historic confrontation.Less

Value-free Biology and Cultural Interpretation

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

This chapter throws light on the interpretation of Western medicine by the Chinese. The Chinese, influenced by the Confucians' early intervention maxims, did not like the concept of the powers of ... More

This chapter throws light on the interpretation of Western medicine by the Chinese. The Chinese, influenced by the Confucians' early intervention maxims, did not like the concept of the powers of self-healing. It is unwelcome even today, more so because the practice of medicine is now subject to economic factors. The emphasis is on prevention, which usually means early detection and early treatment. Immunology, molecular biologists' newest playing field, cannot be forgotten. It has a qualified germ theory and is familiar to the Chinese. The culture of medicine takes certain processes out of value-neutral biology and judges them. It has been known by the Chinese for two millennia. It does so today, in modern medicine. Knowledge of reality has changed considerably. Yet the cultural interpretation has stayed the same.Less

Science as a Verb:: Scientizing Chinese Medicine and the Rise of Mongrel Medicine

Sean Hsiang-lin Lei

in Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity

Based on the discovery that it was the Nationalist state that popularized the project of “scientizing Chinese medicine” by establishing the Institute of National Medicine in 1931, Chapter 7 analyzes ... More

Based on the discovery that it was the Nationalist state that popularized the project of “scientizing Chinese medicine” by establishing the Institute of National Medicine in 1931, Chapter 7 analyzes two related developments. First, as an ideological tool, this project allowed Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu to reconcile the conflict between scientism and cultural nationalism for the Nationalist party. Second, as a vision for medical syncretism, it represented a decisive break from the pre-modern conception of “converging Chinese and Western medicine.” Because this project required traditional practitioners to take science seriously, it gave birth to a new and hybrid medicine, which came to be stigmatized by its opponents as a “mongrel medicine.” To document the emergence of this new medicine, this chapter examines how this project of “scientizing Chinese medicine” motivated, gave shape to, and at the same denied the possibility of such a species of “mongrel medicine.”Less

Medical Policy and Medical Practitioners

Heather Bell

in Frontiers of Medicine in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1899–1940

This chapter provides an overview of the medical administration in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1899 and 1940, arguing that the distinctive form of colonialism developed in Sudan shaped the ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the medical administration in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1899 and 1940, arguing that the distinctive form of colonialism developed in Sudan shaped the medical services provided. It also discusses the different categories of personnel who practised Western medicine on behalf of the colonial state. Analysis of biographical information about Britain's military and civilian doctors and their terms of service suggests that both groups were middle class, well educated, and enjoyed financial and social standing comparable to their political counterparts. A discussion of Syrian and Sudanese medical personnel demonstrates clearly the way in which politics and economic policy influenced who delivered which medical services in different parts of the country at particular points in time. It also shows that British doctors' perception of racial difference, and their class, gender, and occupation hierarchies structured the training of Sudanese medical personnel and the medical service, counterbalancing the fluidity of the boundary drawn around the profession of medicine in Sudan.Less

Medicine without Pharmaceutics

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

Modern Western medicine came into being in the nineteenth century. All normal and sick processes in the body at that time were researched using chemical and physical methods and they were explained ... More

Modern Western medicine came into being in the nineteenth century. All normal and sick processes in the body at that time were researched using chemical and physical methods and they were explained in detail. It was not until the twentieth century that the characteristic features of medications and their effects on the organism were also explained with chemistry and physics, biochemistry, and biophysics. The doctrines of systematic correspondence, yin-yang, and the five agents were used to explain only the normal and sick processes in the body. Medications and their effects were ignored. Writings from the Mawangdui tomb portray a very sophisticated pharmacy that covers the number of substances used, the variety of processing techniques for different dosage forms, and the spectrum of indications recorded in the manuscripts. Pharmacy is the backbone of traditional Chinese therapeutics even up to the present day, but this did not find acceptance in new medicine.Less

Contented Customers in a Supermarket of Possibilities

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

It is astonishing that modern Western medicine works for the Chinese and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) works for the citizens of industrialized Western nations. This indicates a cultural ... More

It is astonishing that modern Western medicine works for the Chinese and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) works for the citizens of industrialized Western nations. This indicates a cultural exchange which is yet incomplete. China had happily exchanged the cage of the systematic correspondences for the cage of modern science. In the West, those who could not accept the bars of chemistry, physics, and technology constructed the playpen of TCM. In this supermarket of possibilities, customers still spend the most money on products from Europe and North America. In the end, the reconstructed TCM playpen is also a Western product. But it is certainly not mainstream. The TCM doctrine is no longer in keeping with the times. The initial plausibility of its theory guaranteed its acceptance. For some time now, a transformation to convention has been taking place. Schools instruct practitioners and effects are seen.Less

Health, Medicine, and the State: Historical Perspectives

V. Sujatha

in Sociology of Health and Medicine: New Perspectives

It would be difficult to talk about health and medicine without reference to the state and the capitalist market because they have become the two major forces impinging on our lives today. This ... More

It would be difficult to talk about health and medicine without reference to the state and the capitalist market because they have become the two major forces impinging on our lives today. This chapter traces the process by which state became so central to health and medicine in the Indian subcontinent. Forms of patronage for medical practitioners, institutional arrangements for treating the sick, provisions for medical education and maintenance of hygiene and sanitation of public places have changed considerably in the past two centuries. While we have to understand how the relation between health, medicine and the state in contemporary societies came about by looking at the history of health and medicine in the past few centuries, there could be no one master history of health and medicine. Conventional histories of medicine and encyclopedias however, tend to be Eurocentric in that they give a simple, singular and linear account of medicine as it developed from a primitive past to a glorious present and as happening only in the west. This chapter is on the Indian experience, but tries to draw upon writings in the rest of the world with regard to the state involvement in health and medicine.Less

Medical Encounters and Divergences

RUTH ROGASKI

in Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China

This chapter investigates just what exactly constituted the “Western medicine” that first arrived in Tianjin aboard British warships in the 1860s, and compares it with mid-century Chinese approaches ... More

This chapter investigates just what exactly constituted the “Western medicine” that first arrived in Tianjin aboard British warships in the 1860s, and compares it with mid-century Chinese approaches to health and healing. Britain had its revenge on the Qing in the summer of 1860 for the 1859 defeat at Taku. The British had failed to realize that the moat was an essential part of the walled city's drainage system. The birth of the clinic in Tianjin is described. The chapter also reports the impact of Drs. David Rennie, Chang, and Lamprey. The Tianjin Massacre was used as evidence to confirm what many nineteenth-century European and American observers had already suspected: China was a place of superstition, confusion, and benightedness, unwilling to accept the advances of Western civilization, whether in the form of religion or medicine.Less

Among Shamanism: Animist Spiritual Healing in America's Urban Heartland

Phua Xiong, Charles Numrich, Wu Chu Yongyuan, Deu Yang, and Gregory A. Plotnikoff

in Religion and Healing in America

The Hmong are an ethnic minority with ancient roots in China. There are now more than 100,000 Hmong refugees in the United States, with the highest concentration in Minnesota and Wisconsin. As the ... More

The Hmong are an ethnic minority with ancient roots in China. There are now more than 100,000 Hmong refugees in the United States, with the highest concentration in Minnesota and Wisconsin. As the Hmong make America their home, their practice of traditional healing—Hmong shamanism (kev ua neeb)—has been particularly challenged by the multiple forces that accompany acculturation, such as the problems faced when individuals are confronted with health care, social services, and legal systems that have no understanding of Hmong traditional beliefs and cultural attitudes. At the same time, the tension between acculturation and traditional beliefs modulates the Hmong's participation in American biomedicine. Due to the dynamic interaction of souls, spirits, and people, and the impact of their interactions on health and illness, many Hmong find Western medicine less than adequate in meeting their needs. Those who do not seek Western treatment will try a variety of traditional healing practices, including shamanism, herbalism, and other home remedies and magic healing. Nevertheless, shamans and shamanism are not opposed to conventional physician care.Less

Health, Faith Traditions, and South Asian Indians in North America

Prakash N. Desai

in Religion and Healing in America

In the last two decades of the 20th century, the presence of South Asian Indians in the United States and Canada has been felt in all major walks of life. The Indian immigrant community and its ... More

In the last two decades of the 20th century, the presence of South Asian Indians in the United States and Canada has been felt in all major walks of life. The Indian immigrant community and its first-generation descendants are a relatively affluent minority in North America. Like most immigrants, Indian immigrants remain tied to their traditional preferences for food and cuisine. In a landscape of adaptation and acculturation, sexuality presents the main challenge for Indians, particularly to the parents of adolescent children. While the community is diverse, with many regional differences, most Hindus in the United States patronize Western medicine, especially in acute illness. Still, their native assumptive system regarding the body and health and illness derived from the principles of Ayurveda continues to thrive. Strategies adopted by Hindus when seeking help and healing may not appear to a non-Indian to be what is ordinarily understood as religious healing. For an Indian, however, religion typically means more than a connection with a deity or a religious order.Less

The Power of Sight

Iruka N. Okeke

in Divining without Seeds: The Case for Strengthening Laboratory Medicine in Africa

This chapter presents a brief overview of how scientists came to attribute diseases to specific pathogens and how this knowledge has revolutionized the control and treatment of infectious diseases. ... More

This chapter presents a brief overview of how scientists came to attribute diseases to specific pathogens and how this knowledge has revolutionized the control and treatment of infectious diseases. It discusses how Western-trained physicians practicing in sub-Saharan Africa offer treatment based on diagnoses made with insufficient evidence. The worst form of this practice is prescribing specific treatments for infectious diseases that have nonspecific clinical signs through signs and symptoms alone. This method is problematic because the treatments offered by Western practitioners are effective only when diagnosis is precise. In equatorial Africa the majority of patients with fever are presumed to have malaria and treated accordingly. While this rapid and cheap diagnostic protocol is helpful to the majority who do have malaria fever, it is life threatening to the significant, and growing, minority who do not.Less