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Research by Region
China
Overview
In China today most medical practitioners have some training in biomedical and traditional medicine. Varying degrees of integration are evident institutionally in the delivery of health-care at hospitals, in diagnosis, explanatory models of disease, therapeutic paths, and drug preparations. Some indigenous traditions, such as pharmacotherapy, acupuncture and moxibustion, massage, are on offer in modern hospital and clinical settings, and even on emergency wards. Other traditions are a living part of popular medical knowledge: elderly people gather in the parks to practice Tai jiquan, the slow, gentle martial art that moves qi and strengthens the spirit. They pass on assumptions about dietary care and tonic medicines. Far from being subsumed under the high tide of a globally powerful biomedicine, according to WHO estimates in 2002, traditional medicine still accounts for about 40% of Chinese health care. Indeed a multi-million pound trade in prepared Chinese medicines world-wide testifies to a two-way transfer of knowledge and techniques. With mass emigration and the globalisation of a plurality of medical traditions, Chinese medicine now survives in many different forms, transforming as it comes into contact with different cultures around the world.
Researchers
Vivienne Lo ...
Kanwen Ma ...
Frank Dikotter ...
Kim Taylor ...
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