Courses
GTSC2015 Disease and Public Health in China since 1800 (3 units)
- Medium of Instruction:
- English
This course examines the spread of diseases and the evolution of the public health system in China since 1800 from an interdisciplinary approach. It identifies the patterns behind the relationship between medical evolution and related political policy-making processes, the innovation of medical technology and the advancement of medical science. This course discusses a variety of topics to examine the developments of Western medicine in China and their impacts on Traditional Chinese medicine. The topics include the innovation of smallpox vaccine, the role of medicine advertising, the establishment of the modern sanitary system, and the changes in public health and national medicine schemes. Moreover, this course examines how traditional notions of health in China were challenged, and how some of them evolved to counteract the challenges of Western medicine. This course also incorporates knowledge and disciplines such as economics, politics, sociology, and technology and sciences to identify key events in the history of public health and disease in China and their influences on the development of today’s public health system.