HH3040 HISTORY OF CHINESE MEDICINE

The course will progress chronologically from pre-Imperial China to modern times, highlighting different periods of transition. Each class/topic is coupled with different theoretical and critical approaches, which will help you consider how evidence and sources relate to research approaches. Classes will outline internal changes, different medical approaches by different actors, processes of importation and translation, and top-down rationalisation and standardization. You will learn how different kinds of practice and theory became 'mainstream,' for whom, and in what time period, and in so doing, come to a broad synthetic understanding of Chinese medical culture. This will build to a reflection on the continuity and change in the modern biomedical context of Chinese medicine, and how medical heritage has become a site of cultural negotiation. The course will contain opportunity for hands-on experience of different traditional healing arts, as well as site-visits to different locations on and off campus.