The_Transmission_and_Practice_of_Chinese_Medicine.pdf

S pecia l feat ure China p e r s p e c t iv e s The Transmission and Practice of Chinese Medicine An Overview and Outlook É R I C MA R I É * ABSTRACT: Chinese medicine is a medical system that was developed in China over a long period of time and has subsequently spread over the rest of the world, especially over recent decades. This study aims first to identify this medicine and to examine the changes that accompanied its institutionalisation in the People’s Republic of China starting in the 1950s, then to set out the continuities and breaking points that have characterised the ways in which it is transmitted, from traditional apprenticeship training to the development of national university syllabuses. It then looks into the way in which Chinese medicine has faced up to biomedicine and sets out a comparative analysis of the paradigms of these two systems, before describing the way in which this exotic medicine has been received and adapted in the West. This makes it possible to grasp the difficulties and issues involved in its globalisation and the increasingly pressing need, from the perspective of university teaching and research, for a more complete, obj ective and pragmatic approach to studying it. KEYWORDS: Chinese medicine, history of medicine, transmission, university, medical systems comparison. The identity, specificity and status of and adapts to different public health systems, constitute a study model Chinese medicine in China and pose a