Prescriptions for Virtuosity: The Postcolonial Struggle of Chinese Medicine PDF
Preview Prescriptions for Virtuosity: The Postcolonial Struggle of Chinese Medicine
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR VIRTUOSITY Prescriptions for Virtuosity THE POSTCOLONIAL STRUGGLE OF CHINESE MEDICINE Eric I. Karchmer Fordham University Press New York 2022 Fordham University Press gratefully acknowledges fi nancial assistance and support provided for the publication of this book by Appalachian State University. Copyright © 2022 Fordham University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Visit us online at www .fordhampress .com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available online at https:// catalog.loc .gov. Printed in the United States of America 24 23 22 5 4 3 2 1 First edition Contents Introduction 1 1. Effi cacies of the State 29 2. Geographies of the Body 69 3. Frail Bodies and the Problem of Diagnosis 107 4. New Textbooks, New Medicine 140 5. Chinese Medicine on the Margins 180 6. Prescriptions for Virtuosity 215 Epilogue 231 Acknowledgments 237 Notes 243 References 253 Index 267 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR VIRTUOSITY Introduction It was a gray and chilly November morning in 2002, two years after my grad- uation from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. I had returned to Dongzhimen Hospital, the main teaching hospital of my alma mater, to spend a few months studying with several senior physicians. I was walking briskly toward the hospital entrance, shortly before the outpatient clinic was to open at 8 a.m. As I approached the hospital, I began to prepare myself for the intense focus I would need for the next four hours. I was going to be shadowing an experienced clinician during his morning shift. It would take my full concentration to follow his clinical work and take good notes as he effi ciently worked through his typical caseload of patients, usually two dozen or more before lunch. I was determined to make the most of this opportunity. I wanted to be a practitioner myself. Although I had completed a fi ve- year medical school de- gree in Chinese medicine, I still felt distressingly unprepared for the demands of clinical practice. I envied my Chinese classmates, who could continue to develop as doctors within the institutional structure of the hospital, gradually mastering the needed clinical skills as they rose through the ranks of resident, attending physician, and beyond. After graduation, my opportunities for clini- cal training in China were limited for a couple reasons. First, foreign students like me were welcomed at universities of Chinese medicine, but we were not allowed to work as doctors in China’s state- run hospitals. Some of my Korean classmates were working around these restrictions by becoming graduate stu- dents, committing to another three to six years of education as a means to also get more clinical training from an advisor. Second, I might have been tempted to follow the lead of my Korean classmates, but I had already started a Ph.D. 1
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