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University of California Press

Doctors within Borders

Profession, Ethnicity, and Modernity in Colonial Taiwan

by Ming-cheng Lo (Author), Jennier Robertson (Foreword by)
Price: $31.95 / £27.00
Publication Date: Aug 2002
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 253
ISBN: 9780520234857
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 5 b/w photographs, 7 tables
Series:

About the Book

This book explores Japan's "scientific colonialism" through a careful study of the changing roles of Taiwanese doctors under Japanese colonial rule. By integrating individual stories based on interviews and archival materials with discussions of political and social theories, Ming-cheng Lo unearths the points of convergence for medicine and politics in colonial Taiwan.

About the Author

Ming-cheng M. Lo is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables
Foreword, by Jennifer Robertson
Acknowledgments
A Note on Romanization

1. Taiwanese Doctors under Japanese Rule: Confronting Contradictions and Negotiating Identities
2. Taiwan: A Nexus of Colonial Forces
3. National Physicians (1920–1931)
4. The Years of Public Demobilization (1931–1936)
5. Medical Modernists (1937–1945)
6. Borders of Medicine: The Dôjinkai Projects in China
7. Professional Identities, Colonial Ambiguities, and Agents of Modernity

Appendix: Sources and Data
Glossary
References
Index

Reviews

“The book also has merit as a methodological exemplar.”
Contemporary Sociology
"Lo's study of Japanese rule in Taiwan illuminates the ways in which the Japanese fostered the development of modern Western medicine and is crucial for a broader understanding of colonialization. Lo blends insights from social movement theory, ethnic studies and critical theory to explore the 'hybrid identities' among Taiwanese physicians hemmed in by scientific colonialism."—Richard Madsen, author of China's Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society

"This beautifully-executed study of Taiwanese doctors—self-appointed agents of modernity—captures what happens to people and groups caught at the intersection of colonialism and professionalization. It enriches our understanding of these large-scale processes, of identity, agency and of modernity itself."—Julia P. Adams, author of The Familial State: Ruling Families and States in Early Modern Europe (forthcoming)