Traditional Medicine in China: Pragmatism and Holism

Abstract

The recent BMA report on Alternative Therapies expresses doubt about the possibility of their incorporation into mainstream medicine. This article examines the experience of China in its attempts to integrate traditional and modern medical systems, and presents a typology of integration. The difficulty of integrating medical theories with a different epistemology, as opposed to practical integration, is discussed, and future developments in China and in Britain are considered.