Prescriptions for Virtuosity: The Postcolonial Struggle of Chinese Medicine

283 Pages·2022·13.126 MB·English

by  Eric I. Karchmer

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR VIRTUOSITY

Prescriptions
for Virtuosity
THE POSTCOLONIAL STRUGGLE OF CHINESE MEDICINE
Eric I. Karchmer
Fordham University Press New York 2022
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University.
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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