Article ID: CBB001450049

Standardization and Its Discontents: Translation, Tension, and the Life of Language in Contemporary Chinese Medicine (2014)

unapi

Various attempts at language standardization have been central in efforts to integrate Chinese medicine into a global, mainstream medical framework. At the same time, language has also proven critical in efforts to integrate Chinese medicine into personal frameworks of meaning as students around the globe grapple with multiple translations. In an effort to convey some of these diverse experiences of standardization and plurality of translations, this article offers four snapshots in the life of language standardization in Chinese medicine. These snapshots are derived from extensive, multisited ethnographic research conducted over four years in diverse settings in both China and the United States. The article thus offers an appreciation of standardization as an ongoing series of human encounters, a complex web of human networks shaping the always changing answers to seemingly simple questions about the motivations behind standardization, the methods used to create standards, and the implications of standards in an increasingly global Chinese medicine. As such, it contributes to an emerging anthropology of translation that underscores the role of human relationships, power, understanding, and interaction in translation.

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Authors & Contributors
Huizhong, Lu (Gloria)
Ma, Xi
Suzanne Z. Gottschang
Guillaume Delmeulle
Tian, Xiaoli
Tsu, Jing
Concepts
Linguistic or semantic analysis
Translations
Language and languages
Rhetoric in scientific discourse
Medicine
Chinese language
Time Periods
19th century
21st century
Ancient
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
China
Middle and Near East
United States
Japan
Greece
Egypt
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