Accommodating the Chinese: The American Hospital in China, 1880-1920

by Renshaw; Michelle Campbell

• ISBN13: 9780415972857
• ISBN10: 041597285X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-02
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Those historians of bio-medicine and its institutions who have turned their attentions away from the West have chosen, mainly to focus on the role of Western medicine in colonial societies. China provides the rare opportunity to investigate intercultural transfer of medical technology and social institutions in a society where the power-relations were not necessarily colonial. This in depth comparative study demonstrates that the hospital established in China-its planning and architecture, financing, and all aspects of day-to-day operation-differed from its counterpart at home. These differences were never due to a single, or even dominant cause. They were a result of a complex process involving accommodation, appreciation, negotiation, opportunism and pragmatism. Doctors were trying to balance the pressures of the political, cultural, economic and physical realities in China whilst maintaining their own professional standards. Rather than the currently popular micro-studies, this book tells alarger story. It enriches the history of the Western hospital by describing its manifestations beyond the West. Also, being a place where ordinary American met ordinary Chinese in the most intimate of circumstances, the hospital provides a unique window into the economic, political, cultural and social conditions of life in China at the time. For more information about this title, please visit www.michellerenshaw.com

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
List of Illustrations	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Glossary	xiii
Acknowledgments	xxi
INTRODUCTION	1	(16)
SECTION I THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT	17	(28)
Chapter One The Hospital in Time and Space	21	(16)
Chapter Two Chinese Institutions the Protestant Missionaries Met	37	(8)
SECTION II THE PHYSICAL HOSPITAL	45	(54)
Chapter Three Early Days Adapted Buildings	49	(10)
Chapter Four Putting Down Roots The Doctor Builder	59	(20)
Chapter Five The Arrival of Architects	79	(20)
SECTION III FINANCING THE HOSPITAL ENTERPRISE	99	(40)
Chapter Six Who Should Pay?	105	(14)
Chapter Seven Who Did Pay?	119	(20)
SECTION IV THE PATIENT'S EXPERIENCE	139	(56)
Chapter Eight Entering a Hospital	141	(26)
Chapter Nine Life on the Ward	167	(28)
CONCLUSION THE NEW CHINESE HOSPITAL	195	(14)
Appendix	209	(6)
Notes	215	(58)
Bibliography	273	(24)
Index	297