Socializing Medicine

In Socializing Medicine, Pao-chen Tang, Yuqian Yan, and Ling Zhang explore the intersections of medicine, health, and East Asian media. Interweaving archival research, audiovisual analyses, and theoretical insights from the emerging field of health humanities, the book reveals the multifaceted ways in which the mass media—from photography and film to television and live streaming—has been deployed as a tool for controlling medicine and health, privileging those with power and authority from the early twentieth century to the present. Adopting anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspectives, the contributors in this volume challenge the dominant mediations of health against the backdrop of imperialism, Cold War geopolitical tensions, and neoliberal capitalism. Collectively, they advocate for alternative understandings of medical culture through media productions that envision accessible and equitable healthcare practices.

Pao-chen Tang is lecturer of film studies at the University of Sydney.

Yuqian Yan is associate researcher of film, television, and new media at Zhejiang University.

Ling Zhang is associate professor of cinema and television studies at the State University of New York Purchase College. 

“This groundbreaking anthology diverges from Eurocentric models to span the celluloid past and digital present and investigate how East Asia offers not only illuminating examples of media shaping the socially based construction of health and medicine, but also some fascinating alternatives to state-centered efforts to bind the body to the nation.”

— Aaron Gerow, Yale University

“Expanding the boundaries of health humanities and media studies simultaneously, Socializing Medicine presents an enthralling picture of the ideological significance of medical media in East Asia. Its transnational and intermedial approach wisely recognizes that media, like viruses, rarely remain stable entities or respect national borders. An essential addition to the growing literature on the relationship between media, medicine, and power.”

— Scott Curtis, Northwestern University