Leprosy in China: A HistoryAngela Ki Che Leung's meticulous study begins with the classical annals of the imperial era, which contain the first descriptions of a feared and stigmatized disorder modern researchers now identify as leprosy. She then tracks the relationship between the disease and China's social and political spheres (theories of contagion prompted community and statewide efforts at segregation); religious traditions (Buddhism and Daoism ascribed redemptive meaning to those suffering from the disease), and evolving medical discourse (Chinese doctors have contested the disease's etiology for centuries). Leprosy even pops up in Chinese folklore, attributing the spread of the contagion to contact with immoral women. Leung next places the history of leprosy into a global context of colonialism, racial politics, and "imperial danger." A perceived global pandemic in the late nineteenth century seemed to confirm Westerners' fears that Chinese immigration threatened public health. Therefore battling to contain, if not eliminate, the disease became a central mission of the modernizing, state-building projects of the late Qing empire, the nationalist government of the first half of the twentieth century, and the People's Republic of China. Stamping out the curse of leprosy was the first step toward achieving "hygienic modernity" and erasing the cultural and economic backwardness associated with the disease. Leung's final move connects China's experience with leprosy to a larger history of public health and biomedical regimes of power, exploring the cultural and political implications of China's Sino-Western approach to the disease. |
Contents
A Cursed but Redeemable Body | 60 |
Segregation in Late | 84 |
The Chinese Leper and the Modern World | 132 |
Leprosy in the PRC | 177 |
Leprosy China and the World | 214 |
Indigenous Leper Asylums in Late Imperial China | 231 |
Glossary | 311 |
| 329 | |
| 355 | |
Other editions - View all
Cultural Processes: A Social Psychological Perspective Angela Ki Che Leung,Chi-yue Chiu,Ying-yi Hong No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Anhui Beijing body Buddhist Canton Cantonese cause Chaozhou Chen Chinese Mission chong chuanran chubanshe colony Confucian contagion contagious cured custom Daoist disease disorders doctors drugs feng Fujian Fuzhou Gansu Ge Hong Guangdong province Guangxi Guangzhou guolai Hangzhou Hansen’s Hong Hospital Hubei idea inmates Inner Canon institutions Jiang Cheng Jiangsu Jiangxi late imperial period leper asylums Leper Quarterly leper villages leprosaria Leprosarium leprosy leprosy control leprosy in China Li Shizhen li/lai lifeng mafeng fangzhi mafeng patients mafeng/lai medical texts medicine medieval miasmatic Ming Ming-Qing Mission to Lepers missionaries modern ofleprosy ofthe Public Health Qing recipes region Renmin segregation sexual Shandong Shanghai Shaoguan Shen shuju skin social Song sores southern story sufferers Sun Simiao symptoms Taipei Tang tion tongzhi traditional transmission twentieth century waike Wang weisheng zhi Western Wind xian zhi Xiao yuan Yunnan zazhi Zhejiang zhi Gazetteer Zhongguo mafeng