In Other Words: Late Imperial China

by Janet Gilbert Journals, Direct Response and Renewals Senior Coordinator  Time travel is possible, in the pages of Late Imperial China—and in our newest installment of In Other Words, featuring editor Tobie Meyer-Fong. The video opens a conversation on the journal’s special section on gender and medicine, transporting viewers to a time more than a thousand years ago when the gendering of disease was explored and documented. Why were unmarried women, nuns, and widows singled out as more susceptible to demonic possession than reproductive women? How did the patriarchal society in which both patients and practitioners lived translate into medical opinions? These questions are relevant today, as they were in the Ming-Qing dynasties. And it is precisely the sort of conversation that Daniel Coit Gilman might enjoy, as evidenced by his words in a speech at Berkeley on October 25, 1899: “Let us study the progress of human civilization, remembering that by ideas the world is governed.” Please enjoy this intriguing look into the ideas examined in Late Imperial China, and reflect on their influence and relevance today.