Abstract
“A doctor of the highest caliber treats an illness before it happens,” a seemingly antiquated doctrine in traditional Chinese medicine, is enjoying surging popularity among practitioners in urban China and the United States today. In this essay, I examine how the meanings and contours of traditional Chinese medicine have shifted in recent decades as it is molded into a “preventive medicine” through translocal encounters. From the 1960s and the early 1970s, the emphasis China's socialist health care placed on preventive health among the rural poor shaped the practice of Chinese herbal medicine and especially acupuncture. This version of preventive medicine was also exported to the Third World, which China strove to champion. Since the end of the Cold War and especially during the 1990s, as China strives to “get on track with the world” (specifically, affluent nation-states, especially in North America and the European Union), traditional Chinese medicine has been rapidly commodified and reinvented as a new kind of preventive medicine tailored for cosmopolitan, middle-class lifestyles. The emergence of this radically new preventive medicine resuscitates certain stories of antiquity and continuity, emphasizing that traditional Chinese medicine has always been “preventive” while obliterating recent memories of the proletariat world and its preventive medicine.
Highlights
Mei Zhan ‘‘A doctor of the highest caliber treats an illness before it happens,’’ a seemingly antiquated doctrine in traditional Chinese medicine, is enjoying surging popularity among practitioners in urban China and the United States today
Bian Que, who lived and worked during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC–475 BC), is one of the most celebrated physicians in Chinese history and a household name even today. (‘‘Bian Que Jian Qihuangong’’—Bian Que Meets Duke Huan of Qi—a chapter from the 1st-Century BC book ShiJi [Historical Records], remains a required reading in junior high school curriculum in China.) Despite his fame, I had never heard of his ‘‘older brothers’’ until I took an introductory course on the basic theories in traditional Chinese medicine for first-year students at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SUTCM)
The worlding of Chinese medicine is not about how a ready-made ancient medical practice goes around the world, carried by the waves of ‘‘globalization.’’ My discussion in this article is a little less and a little more ambitious than giving an account of the globalization of Chinese medicine
Summary
Mei Zhan ‘‘A doctor of the highest caliber treats an illness before it happens,’’ a seemingly antiquated doctrine in traditional Chinese medicine, is enjoying surging popularity among practitioners in urban China and the United States today. ‘‘A doctor of the highest caliber treats an illness before it happens,’’ a seemingly antiquated doctrine in traditional Chinese medicine, is enjoying surging popularity among practitioners in urban China and the United States today.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
