" ‘병든 중국’을 치료하기 - 청말 중국에서의 신체에 대한 새로운 인식 - "

Abstract

China’s defeat in the two mid-nineteenth century Opium Wars led many Chinese Confucian scholars to realize that China was not the center of the world and damaged their long-standing pride in Chinese civilization. After that, a negative perspective of China grew rapidly in the West, represented by a view of China as the “sick man of Asia.” This negative perception was widespread m China as well. This paper examines the creation and dissemination of the sick man of Asia narrative and critically explores the Western-centered ideas that supported the narrative, such as social Darwinism, pathology, imperialism, and Orientalism. In addition, by analyzing reform-minded intellectuals’ worldviews and renewed views of the body and the Dianshizhai Pictorial’s illustrations of Western sports and medical technology, this paper investigates the ways in which the sick man of Asia narrative was reproduced in China and influenced Chinese society.