Medical Transitions in Twentieth-Century China - Tapa dura

"An important contribution to scholarship. Historians of medicine and public health in China will find it useful and [it] will become required reading on modern China for scholars interested in the history of public health, and particularly those interested in the Rockefeller Foundation." -Hilary A. Smith, Dickinson College "Medical Transitions in Twentieth Century China provides rich insights into how one country has dealt with perhaps the most central issue for any human society: the health and wellbeing of its citizens. Yet the book sheds light on more than simply China's own medical transitions, and should appeal to anyone interested more broadly in the modern history of health." -The Lancet

This volume examines important aspects of China's century-long search to provide appropriate and effective health care for its people. Four subjects-disease and healing, encounters and accommodations, institutions and professions, and people's health-organize discussions across case studies of schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, mental health, and tobacco and health. Among the book's significant conclusions are the importance of barefoot doctors in disseminating western medicine, the improvements in medical health and services during the long Sino-Japanese war, and the important role of the Chinese consumer. Intended for an audience of health practitioners, historians, and others interested in the history of medicine and health in China, the book is one of three commissioned by the China Medical Board to mark its centennial in 2014.