The Problematization of Tuberculosis in Modern China

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  • 近代中國における肺結核の問題化
  • キンダイ チュウゴク ニ オケル ハイケッカク ノ モンダイカ
  • 近代中国における肺結核の問題化

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Abstract

This paper analyzes how tuberculosis was recognized by the Chinese people from the late Qing Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic of China, and how it came to be regarded as a problem. Specifically, two questions have been addressed : first, how the infection and mortality rates of tuberculosis were widely known by the public in modern China ; and second, how tuberculosis was associated with the phrase “Sick Man of East Asia” (Dongyabingfu 東亞病夫). In modern China, when the medical system was still incompletely developed, the translation work of Ding Fubao (丁福保) and others played a very important role in the propagation and acceptance of medical knowledge from Japan and the West. At about the same time, the Shanghai Municipal Council's concern about the high mortality rate of tuberculosis in the public concession also led to the recognition of the risk of tuberculosis. Through leaflets in Chinese, street speeches, and cooperative publicity with the YMCA, the terrifying data on infections and mortality caused by tuberculosis gradually became known to the Chinese, and knowledge of tuberculosis was also used by intellectuals, doctors, social activists, publishers, advertisers and others. With the initial establishment of the public health system during the period of the Nanjing National Government, prevention and treatment of tuberculosis with its high rates of infection and mortality was linked with the emotional slogan urging the salvatiion of the country. In addition, in the problematizing of tuberculosis, the causal link between tuberculosis and being the “Sick Man of East Asia” was often brought up during and after the Sino-Japanese War. After China became a victorious nation, it was thought that it could wash away the various humiliations that had been imposed by foreign powers since the end of the Qing Dynasty. Intellectuals and doctors called on the people, arguing that the only way to solve the tuberculosis problem, which had become more serious due to the war, was to cleanse the shame of being the “Sick Man of East Asia.” This series of explanations and understanding about tuberculosis will not only help us to understand the concept of medical culture in modern China, but also provide us a new perspective for research on the socio-medical and cultural history of modern China.

Journal

  • 東洋史研究

    東洋史研究 77 (4), 581-616, 2019-03-30

    THE TOYOSHI-KENKYU-KAI : The Society of Oriental Researches, Kyoto University

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