Kim Taylor explores the influences of the west on modern Chinese medicine. According to Taylor, Western scholarly interest in Chinese medicine pushed for scientification of Chinese medicine, prompting more information on traditional healing method. This marked the westernization of Chinese medicine in which the western publications on Chinese medicine depicting traditional medicine as inferior. Chinese on the other hand maintained a preserved culture, secretive to the rest of the world. When releasing information, China did so cautiously. The released information was interpreted according to preconceived idea of what being Chinese involved. The Western interpretation intended to influence Chinese society and medicine. As such, knowledge on Chinese medicine purported by Western scholars emanates from categorical information released by the Chinese. Nonetheless, from a Chinese perspective, western preconceptions of medicine brewed in the west during the 1970s in a bid to influence the medicine industry. At the time, western scholars had very little access to Chinese medicine to determine the true nature of medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on the other hand remained part of mainstream education in China. When introduced to China, foreign medicine came to be labeled as Western medicine while that of indigenous China was labeled TCM. The aim of developing Chinese medicine was to make it recognizable and consistent with modern scientific medicine. Chinese medical Journals accorded articles on history of Chinese medicine with prominence in foreign language. Earlier articles on the Chinese Medical Journal described past occurrences of diseases and ancient medicine as old and not meeting biological threshold. Later articles shifted from tracing modern biological disease categories to proclaiming merits of Chinese medicine.
In the real sense, western health scholars explored Chinese medicine because it proved effective than the western medicine. Taylor argues that Western physicians dropped their professions to study Chinese medicine with a bid to control ideologically impure intellectual western science and provide Chinese healing practice with a scientific base. This would allow Chinese medicine to compete with Western medicine on an equal platform. Nonetheless, western scholars introduced terminologies on Chinese medicine, changing the existing terminology. The exact motivations of the change are difficult to unveil. Nonetheless, the consequence of such actions is evident and readily related. The clear label was the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, with diseases now treated with a mixture of Chinese and Western medicine. They purported that the mixture would utilize modern scientific methods as well as employ incisive techniques that would ensure research into Chinese medicine and its clinical experience. The integration of medicine practices was advertised to the west as superior to the medicine of the west. The west saw potential and significance of Chinese medicine but did not want to declare Chinese medicine as superior. As a result, the west sought to research on Chinese medicine. The findings of such studies established that Chinese medicine had its roots in ancient medical practices. The Chinese society had sustained and advanced on its medicine because it preserved education on TCM, passed from one generation to another. Nonetheless, Chinese medicine’s position both in China and abroad came to be strengthened by western responses to its healing methods. The focus on TCM by Western medical practitioners gave rise to popularity of Chinese medicine. As such, awareness of Chinese medicine increased with the increasing attention by the Western to provide TCM with scientific foundation. Therefore, inclusion of Chinese medicine in global health practice is solely because of the Western influences. It also led to commercialization and integration of TCM.
Works Cited
Taylor, Kim. "Divergent interests and cultivated misunderstandings: The influence of the west on modern Chinese medicine." Social History of Medicine 17.1 (2004): 93-111.
