Leprosy in China

Informationen zum Autor Angela Ki Che Leung Klappentext Angela Ki Che Leung's ambitious and meticulous study begins with the classical annals of the imperial era! which contain the first descriptions of a feared and stigmatized disorder modern researchers now identify as leprosy. She then tracks the relationship between the disease and China's social and political spheres (theories of contagion prompted community and statewide efforts at segregation); its religious traditions (Buddhism and Daoism ascribed redemptive meaning to those suffering from the disease)! and its evolving medical discourse (doctors contested the disease's etiology for centuries). Leprosy even occupied Chinese folklore! which claimed that contagion was a fatal consequence of associating with immoral women. Leung next places the history of leprosy into a global context of colonialism! racial politics! and "imperial danger." A perceived global pandemic in the late nineteenth century seemed to confirm Westerners' fears that Chinese immigration threatened public health. Battling to contain! if not eliminate! the disease became a central mission of the modernizing! state-building projects of the late Qing empire! the nationalist government of the first half of the twentieth century! and the People's Republic of China. Stamping out the curse of leprosy was the first step toward achieving "hygienic modernity" and erasing the cultural and economic backwardness associated with the disease. Leung's final move is to connect China's experience with leprosy to a larger history of public health and biomedical regimes of power! exploring the cultural and political implications of China's Sino-Western approach to the disease.

Auteur

Angela Ki Che Leung

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Angela Ki Che Leung's ambitious and meticulous study begins with the classical annals of the imperial era, which contain the first descriptions of a feared and stigmatized disorder modern researchers now identify as leprosy. She then tracks the relationship between the disease and China's social and political spheres (theories of contagion prompted community and statewide efforts at segregation); its religious traditions (Buddhism and Daoism ascribed redemptive meaning to those suffering from the disease), and its evolving medical discourse (doctors contested the disease's etiology for centuries). Leprosy even occupied Chinese folklore, which claimed that contagion was a fatal consequence of associating with immoral women.

Leung next places the history of leprosy into a global context of colonialism, racial politics, and "imperial danger." A perceived global pandemic in the late nineteenth century seemed to confirm Westerners' fears that Chinese immigration threatened public health. Battling to contain, if not eliminate, the disease became a central mission of the modernizing, state-building projects of the late Qing empire, the nationalist government of the first half of the twentieth century, and the People's Republic of China. Stamping out the curse of leprosy was the first step toward achieving "hygienic modernity" and erasing the cultural and economic backwardness associated with the disease. Leung's final move is to connect China's experience with leprosy to a larger history of public health and biomedical regimes of power, exploring the cultural and political implications of China's Sino-Western approach to the disease.

Contenu
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Li/Lai/Dafeng/Mafeng: History of the Conceptualization of a Disease/Category 2. A Cursed but Redeemable Body 3. The Dangerously Contagious Body: Segregation in Late Imperial China 4. The Chinese Leper and the Modern World 5. Leprosy in the PRC Epilogue: Leprosy, China, and the World Appendix 1: List of Leprosaria and Clinics in China Appendix 2: Indigenous Leper Asylums in Late Imperial China Glossary Bibliography Index