Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Psychiatry, And Healing In China
by Nancy N. Chen /
2003 / English / PDF
3.2 MB Download
The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on
meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity
in China during the last two decades. Qigong served a critical
social organizational function, as practitioners formed new
informal networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time
when China was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to
for-profit market medicine. The emergence of new psychological
states deemed to be deviant led the Chinese state to "medicalize"
certain forms while championing scientific versions of qigong. By
contrast, qigong continues to be promoted outside China as a
traditional healing practice. Breathing Spaces brings to life the
narratives of numerous practitioners, healers, psychiatric
patients, doctors, and bureaucrats, revealing the varied and
often dramatic ways they cope with market reform and social
changes in China.
The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on
meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity
in China during the last two decades. Qigong served a critical
social organizational function, as practitioners formed new
informal networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time
when China was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to
for-profit market medicine. The emergence of new psychological
states deemed to be deviant led the Chinese state to "medicalize"
certain forms while championing scientific versions of qigong. By
contrast, qigong continues to be promoted outside China as a
traditional healing practice. Breathing Spaces brings to life the
narratives of numerous practitioners, healers, psychiatric
patients, doctors, and bureaucrats, revealing the varied and
often dramatic ways they cope with market reform and social
changes in China.