ABSTRACT

This book examines the encounter between western and Asian models of public health and medicine in a range of East and Southeast Asian countries over the course of the twentieth century until now. It discusses the transfer of scientific knowledge of medicine and public health approaches from Europe and the United States to several Asian countries — Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan, and China — and local interactions with, and transformations of, these public health models and approaches from the nineteenth century to the 1950s. Taking a critical look at assumptions about the objectiveness of science, the book highlights the use of scientific knowledge for political control, cultural manipulation, social transformation and economic needs. It rigorously and systematically investigates the historical developments of public health concepts, policies, institutions, and how these practices changed from colonial, to post-colonial and into the present day.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

Interpreting science and public health in modern Asia

chapter |18 pages

Public health in pre-war Singapore

The development of hospital services and medical education

chapter |20 pages

Hygiene and decolonization

The Rockefeller Foundation and Indonesian nationalism, 1933–1958

chapter |20 pages

“Removing the obstacles to public health work” 1

Context for the Rockefeller philanthropies and public health in China and Japan, 1920–1940

chapter |16 pages

From race biology to population control

The Rockefeller Foundation's “Public Health” projects in Japan, 1920s–1950s

chapter |15 pages

Beijing First Health Station

Innovative public health education and influence on China's health profession

chapter |17 pages

Between the state and the private sphere

Chinese state medicine movement, 1930–1949

chapter |16 pages

From Japanese colonial medicine to American-standard medicine in Taiwan

A case study of the transition in the medical profession and practices in East Asia

chapter |2 pages

Conclusion