Lei, Sean Hsiang-lin (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: x + 382 pp.; ill.; notes; index
Language: English
Neither Donkey nor Horse tells the story of how Chinese medicine was transformed from the antithesis of modernity in the early twentieth century into a potent symbol of and vehicle for China's exploration of its own modernity half a century later. Instead of viewing this transition as derivative of the political history of modern China, Sean Hsiang-lin Lei argues that China's medical history had a life of its own, one that at times directly influenced the ideological struggle over the meaning of China's modernity and the Chinese state. Far from being a remnant of China's premodern past, Chinese medicine in the twentieth century coevolved with Western medicine and the Nationalist state, undergoing a profound transformation---institutionally, epistemologically, and materially---that resulted in the creation of a modern Chinese medicine. This new medicine was derided as “neither donkey nor horse” because it necessarily betrayed both of the parental traditions and therefore was doomed to fail. Yet this hybrid medicine survived, through self-innovation and negotiation, thus challenging the conception of modernity that rejected the possibility of productive crossbreeding between the modern and the traditional. By exploring the production of modern Chinese medicine and China's modernity in tandem, Lei offers both a political history of medicine and a medical history of the Chinese state.
...MoreReview Lijing Jiang (2017) Review of "Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation-Building in South Korea since 1945". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 88-91).
Essay Review Howard Chiang (2016) Review of Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960 and Sean Hsiang-lin Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 352-356).
Review Iris Borowy (2016) Review of "Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity". East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (pp. 181-185).
Review David Luesink (2015) Review of "Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity". Social History of Medicine (pp. 947-948).
Review Rachel Core (2016) Review of "Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 883-884).
Review Ruth Rogaski (2016) Review of "Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity". East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 105-107).
Review Barnes, Nicole Elizabeth (2015) Review of "Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 835-836).
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