Public Health and Sanitary Reforms in the Context of the Formation of the Modern State in China: from Empire to Republic

Abstract

The article discusses key episodes connected with the formation of public health care system in China in the last years of the Qing Empire and the first years of the Chinese Republic. It is shown that this process was part of a more general process of modernization of the Chinese statehood, the reason for which was the interference of foreign countries in the internal affairs of China. In an effort to get rid of the image of the “sick man of Asia” that accompanied the empire in its historical bankruptcy, state dignitaries, intellectuals and the nationalist-minded medical community proclaimed the need to reform the state system. They saw as an essential part of the reform process the creation of an effective health care system, and the condition for this was the use of the achievements of Western medical science and sanitation. Part of the processes under consideration were measures to control the Manchurian plague epidemic, to establish modern medical institutions, to educate the population in sanitary matters and to employ reputable medical specialists in the service of the government.