This presentation examines the history of hypnotism in Republican China (1911-1949), focusing on its role as an instrument for nation-building and social reform. Introduced to China from Japan and Western countries in the early 1900s, hypnotism rapidly gained popularity, with numerous associations and practitioners emerging across the country. Hypnotism’s appeal was fuelled by popular manuals promising self-improvement, healing and even extraordinary abilities like mind-reading, insensibility to pain and astral travel. These ideas resonated deeply with a growing community of reformers who believed that China’s revolution must begin with the transformation of the Chinese psyche.

Through stage performances and personal accounts in the general press, hypnotism was showcased as a powerful tool for personal and social transformation. Chinese intellectuals and military reformers saw hypnotism as a means to strengthen the nation, arguing that it could cultivate courage, discipline and patriotism among soldiers, and even be used for military espionage through telepathy and clairvoyance. This paper explores the social uses of hypnotism – how it evolved from a mental technique for individual growth into a revolutionary instrument aimed at rebuilding Chinese society and fostering a new, enlightened civilisation. It contends that the history of hypnotism in China is primarily a transnational history of knowledge circulation and localisation. I use printed and visual sources to explore how – inspired by foreign examples – Republican-era reformers promoted hypnotism as a new science capable of crafting an ideal Chinese citizen. This paper contributes to our understanding of the appropriation of scientific knowledge in non-Western contexts.

This study examines the development of sports medicine in China from the 1950s , focusing on its transformation from an elite domain to a tool for public health. It highlights the critical role of knowledge intermediaries in facilitating the flow, diffusion, and localization of sports medicine knowledge. In 1955, the establishment of the Medical Physical Education Research Group at Beijing Medical College, followed by the Sports Medicine Research Institute at Peking University Third Hospital, laid the foundation for sports medicine in China. Over subsequent decades, sports medicine expanded to cities such as Shanghai, Sichuan, and Tianjin, with regional variations reflecting differences in resource allocation, cultural adaptation, and policy implementation. Meanwhile, the target audience for sports medicine shifted from athletes to the general population, marking its transition from serving competitive sports to promoting public health.
Using “knowledge circulation” and “localization” as theoretical frameworks, this study draws on archival materials and regional case studies to analyze how sports medicine was embedded into local practices through policy-driven initiatives and the adaptive efforts of intermediaries. By situating the development of Chinese sports medicine within a global context, the study reveals how local knowledge systems are transformed and innovated through cross-regional and cross-cultural exchanges, offering new insights into the historical dynamics of science, technology, and medicine.

Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), celebrated as one of the most important medical advancements of the 20th century, is typically considered to have been “discovered” in 1968. However, this study, based on extensive Chinese literature, reveals that China’s recognition and practice of ORT predated its global dissemination, challenging prevailing narratives in medical history. As early as 1956, motivated by urgent rural healthcare needs, Chinese researchers devised and implemented effective oral rehydration solutions. Although informed by international research on water-electrolyte balance, ORT in China represented a locally adapted innovation. Furthermore, under Mao Zedong’s directive in 1965 to shift healthcare priorities to rural areas, ORT found widespread adoption in rural China as an appropriate and accessible technology. By the 1980s, however, as WHO and UNICEF began promoting Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) worldwide, China’s pioneering work in ORT was largely eclipsed in both global and national accounts. This study reexamines the early recognition and practice of ORT in China, offering a locally grounded perspective that contributes to a fuller understanding of ORT’s global history.

Medicine or Miracle?: Deaf Cure and Its Ideological Implications in Socialist China

Today, deafness at birth is still widely perceived as a congenital disorder in Chinese society, and it is believed to be cured by the development of gene therapy. Concerned about the origin of this ableist comprehension of deafness in socialist China, this chapter explores the dynamics of deaf cure between the 1950s and 1970s.

While the Western biomedical knowledge of deaf cure was sporadically introduced into China before 1949, the communist government first made comprehensive attempts to translate the Soviet Union's medical knowledge in the 1950s. The progress in treating deafness was interpreted as a socialist miracle in the 1950s. In correspondence with Chairman Mao's advocacy for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and its pharmacy in the late 1950s, acupuncture and its application in deaf cure gradually drew attention from physicians and deaf educators. They collaborated on experimenting with treating deafness, which was viewed as proof of TCM's legitimacy. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the development of acupuncture in deaf cure was further endowed with ideological implications. The acupuncture in treating deafness was further enhanced and entwined with the social Maoist miracle of "breaking off the forbidden zone," while proving a myth later on.

Through the lens of the trajectory of deaf cure, this chapter contends for the interference of ideological concerns with medicine in socialist China.