Yi-Li Wu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Yi-Li Wu
Asian Medicine, 2021
Tenisha Dandridge is a cofounder and the current president of the Black Acupuncturist Association... more Tenisha Dandridge is a cofounder and the current president of the Black Acupuncturist Association (US). She advocates using Chinese medicine and acupuncture to address the racial health disparities afflicting African Americans. In June 2020 an editor of Asian Medicine interviewed her about her career and medical activism. The main themes of the interview include: how racial bias results in disproportionately high rates of morbidity and mortality among African Americans; how the theories and therapies of Chinese medicine are well suited for addressing the psychophysiological harms caused by racial discrimination; why it is important to increase Black representation in the acupuncture profession; and how community-based modes of healing can expand African Americans’ interest in, access to, and utilization of acupuncture and ear seed acupressure.
Asian Medicine, 2021
This essay examines the intersections between Asian medicines, racial healthcare inequities, and ... more This essay examines the intersections between Asian medicines, racial healthcare inequities, and social justice movements, and explains how they are illuminated by the interviews and essays in this special issue. Important themes include: how the protests following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 spurred US organizations of alternative, complementary, and integrative medicine to undertake antiracist initiatives; how acupuncturists have been working to properly acknowledge the contributions of African American practitioners in their historical narratives; and how acupuncture may be a useful tool for mitigating racial health disparities.
Asian Medicine, 2021
Denise Tyson is the president of the Maryland Acupuncture Society (US), one of the state-level pr... more Denise Tyson is the president of the Maryland Acupuncture Society (US), one of the state-level professional organizations that comprises the American Society of Acupuncturists. Following the police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, she called on her colleagues in the acupuncture profession to take meaningful action against racism and to educate themselves about the long history of racist violence against African Americans. In July 2020 an editor of Asian Medicine interviewed Tyson to learn about her medical career and her perspectives on race and health care. The main themes of the interview include: her affinity for acupuncture and Chinese medicine, her experiences with racial bias in both biomedicine and integrative medicine, strategies for making acupuncture organizations more inclusive, and the crucial role that education plays in combating racism.
Asian Medicine, 2021
Tolbert Small (b. 1943) is a physician and civil rights activist best known for his advocacy for ... more Tolbert Small (b. 1943) is a physician and civil rights activist best known for his advocacy for research on sickle cell anemia. In the summer of 2020 two of Asian Medicine’s editors, Daniel Burton-Rose and Yi-Li Wu, interviewed Small about his clinical career of more than fifty years. The interview focuses on Small’s experience with acupuncture, the practice of Chinese medicine in the United States, and his commitment to social justice. Small was introduced to acupuncture in 1972 as a member of a delegation of the Black Panther Party to the People’s Republic of China, and he incorporated it into his clinical practice upon his return to Oakland, California. Small began practicing acupuncture at a time when instructional materials and therapeutic implements were difficult to obtain. He witnessed the gradual mainstreaming of Chinese medicine in the United States, accompanied by problems of differential access based on race and income.
Historical epistemology and the making of modern Chinese medicine, 2015
Reproducing WomenMedicine, Metaphor, and Childbirth in Late Imperial China, 2010
NAN NÜ, 2002
This paper examines the issue of medical uncertainty in Chinese gynecology by analyzing how class... more This paper examines the issue of medical uncertainty in Chinese gynecology by analyzing how classical medicine defined and explained different forms of false pregnancy. Besides recognizing that false pregnancies could mimic true ones, Chinese gynecology also recognized that true fetuses could deviate from the normal course of gestation and thus mimic false pregnancies. Therefore, the paper argues that the perceived difficulty of distinguishing between true and false pregnancies was intimately linked to the belief that female reproductive energies were easily subverted by external pathogens and internal imbalances. Special attention is given to the syndrome known as Ghost Fetus, which was originally explained as the product of human-ghost intercourse but later understood primarily as the result of excessive female emotion. During the Qing, furthermore, discussions of Ghost Fetus and other forms of false pregnancy frequently merged into discussions of female depletion and menstrual ir...
Asian Medicine, 2008
How have gender norms historically influenced the visual depiction of the human body in Chinese m... more How have gender norms historically influenced the visual depiction of the human body in Chinese medicine? I address this question by analysing 484 images of the body published in the Imperially-Commissioned Golden Mirror of Medical Learning (Yuzuan yizong jinjian) of 1742. The Golden Mirror used male figures to depict the standard human body, a pattern that I call visual androcentrism, and I discuss three factors that helped to foster this pattern. First, the Golden Mirror borrowed images from non-medical sources and thereby reiterated a broader cultural tendency to use male figures as normative, with female figures used only in special circumstances. Second, there was a strong association in Chinese visual culture between the semi-exposed male body and ideals of spiritual enlightenment and longevity. This made male figures particularly appropriate for a text on healing that needed to reveal the features and disorders of different body parts. Finally, male medical figures provided a...
The American Historical Review, 2007
Asian Medicine, 2021
Tenisha Dandridge is a cofounder and the current president of the Black Acupuncturist Association... more Tenisha Dandridge is a cofounder and the current president of the Black Acupuncturist Association (US). She advocates using Chinese medicine and acupuncture to address the racial health disparities afflicting African Americans. In June 2020 an editor of Asian Medicine interviewed her about her career and medical activism. The main themes of the interview include: how racial bias results in disproportionately high rates of morbidity and mortality among African Americans; how the theories and therapies of Chinese medicine are well suited for addressing the psychophysiological harms caused by racial discrimination; why it is important to increase Black representation in the acupuncture profession; and how community-based modes of healing can expand African Americans’ interest in, access to, and utilization of acupuncture and ear seed acupressure.
Asian Medicine, 2021
This essay examines the intersections between Asian medicines, racial healthcare inequities, and ... more This essay examines the intersections between Asian medicines, racial healthcare inequities, and social justice movements, and explains how they are illuminated by the interviews and essays in this special issue. Important themes include: how the protests following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 spurred US organizations of alternative, complementary, and integrative medicine to undertake antiracist initiatives; how acupuncturists have been working to properly acknowledge the contributions of African American practitioners in their historical narratives; and how acupuncture may be a useful tool for mitigating racial health disparities.
Asian Medicine, 2021
Denise Tyson is the president of the Maryland Acupuncture Society (US), one of the state-level pr... more Denise Tyson is the president of the Maryland Acupuncture Society (US), one of the state-level professional organizations that comprises the American Society of Acupuncturists. Following the police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, she called on her colleagues in the acupuncture profession to take meaningful action against racism and to educate themselves about the long history of racist violence against African Americans. In July 2020 an editor of Asian Medicine interviewed Tyson to learn about her medical career and her perspectives on race and health care. The main themes of the interview include: her affinity for acupuncture and Chinese medicine, her experiences with racial bias in both biomedicine and integrative medicine, strategies for making acupuncture organizations more inclusive, and the crucial role that education plays in combating racism.
Asian Medicine, 2021
Tolbert Small (b. 1943) is a physician and civil rights activist best known for his advocacy for ... more Tolbert Small (b. 1943) is a physician and civil rights activist best known for his advocacy for research on sickle cell anemia. In the summer of 2020 two of Asian Medicine’s editors, Daniel Burton-Rose and Yi-Li Wu, interviewed Small about his clinical career of more than fifty years. The interview focuses on Small’s experience with acupuncture, the practice of Chinese medicine in the United States, and his commitment to social justice. Small was introduced to acupuncture in 1972 as a member of a delegation of the Black Panther Party to the People’s Republic of China, and he incorporated it into his clinical practice upon his return to Oakland, California. Small began practicing acupuncture at a time when instructional materials and therapeutic implements were difficult to obtain. He witnessed the gradual mainstreaming of Chinese medicine in the United States, accompanied by problems of differential access based on race and income.
Historical epistemology and the making of modern Chinese medicine, 2015
Reproducing WomenMedicine, Metaphor, and Childbirth in Late Imperial China, 2010
NAN NÜ, 2002
This paper examines the issue of medical uncertainty in Chinese gynecology by analyzing how class... more This paper examines the issue of medical uncertainty in Chinese gynecology by analyzing how classical medicine defined and explained different forms of false pregnancy. Besides recognizing that false pregnancies could mimic true ones, Chinese gynecology also recognized that true fetuses could deviate from the normal course of gestation and thus mimic false pregnancies. Therefore, the paper argues that the perceived difficulty of distinguishing between true and false pregnancies was intimately linked to the belief that female reproductive energies were easily subverted by external pathogens and internal imbalances. Special attention is given to the syndrome known as Ghost Fetus, which was originally explained as the product of human-ghost intercourse but later understood primarily as the result of excessive female emotion. During the Qing, furthermore, discussions of Ghost Fetus and other forms of false pregnancy frequently merged into discussions of female depletion and menstrual ir...
Asian Medicine, 2008
How have gender norms historically influenced the visual depiction of the human body in Chinese m... more How have gender norms historically influenced the visual depiction of the human body in Chinese medicine? I address this question by analysing 484 images of the body published in the Imperially-Commissioned Golden Mirror of Medical Learning (Yuzuan yizong jinjian) of 1742. The Golden Mirror used male figures to depict the standard human body, a pattern that I call visual androcentrism, and I discuss three factors that helped to foster this pattern. First, the Golden Mirror borrowed images from non-medical sources and thereby reiterated a broader cultural tendency to use male figures as normative, with female figures used only in special circumstances. Second, there was a strong association in Chinese visual culture between the semi-exposed male body and ideals of spiritual enlightenment and longevity. This made male figures particularly appropriate for a text on healing that needed to reveal the features and disorders of different body parts. Finally, male medical figures provided a...
The American Historical Review, 2007