CCHH: CHINA CENTRE FOR HEALTH AND HUMANITY

The new MA in Chinese Health and Humanity* is designed to further understanding and develop expertise in a range of subjects concerned with Chinese health and well-being and the impact of China, historically and in the present day, on health around the world. It integrates UCL China expertise in a common agenda to train the next generation of professionals in the skills necessary for understanding and improving conditions in China. Working also with Centres for Medical Humanities and the Institute for Global Health at PKU, it seeks to provide an educational forum that actively promotes free and interdisciplinary exchange as an integral part of the teaching programme.

The MA enrolled its first students in 2012 and is situated in the History Department in the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences. It forms the educational core of the new Centre for Chinese Health and Humanity, and therefore benefits from the research environment created there. In addition, summer schools in China will offer language teaching and intensive courses in a variety of health related subjects at Peking University.

Training postgraduate students able to think innovatively about the important issues raised during this course and, ultimately, to be able to operate effectively within different Chinese academic, bureaucratic and commercial cultures requires core language skills and a deep understanding of Chinese history and culture as it relates to health. The Core Course embodies the interdisciplinary approach combining: Modern Chinese language, socio-political and cultural history, and a core course which offers Chinese Health and Humanity from the perspective of history of medicine, anthropology, social sciences, law, built environment, climate change, media, sports science and global health governance. Specialised courses are also on offer, and students are able to choose from relevant courses in UCL and SOAS.

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CCHH’s mission is to provide a research environment which brings together academic disciplines in the common pursuit of real improvements in the health of China. Our work is also grounded in the belief that there is much to learn in this process from China’s history and cultures of health and well being. We are therefore committed to building networks with China’s institutions, policymakers and educators in order to develop research protocols which will produce appropriate and effective health interventions.

China’s economic miracle in the last three decades has not been matched with equivalent progress in its major health indicators. Investment in social infrastructure, the management of health-care provision, access, environmental protection, and climate change has lagged behind its dedication to promoting industrial and commercial growth.

At the same time the government has faced unique challenges – unprecedented population growth, a rapidly increasingly aging population, new diseases, urbanisation and migration, water and air pollution, and an increasing disparity in wealth between the littoral cities and the rural hinterland. With a population of c a 1.3 billion people on the move and with new styles of consumer cultures, the Chinese impact on our global health is impossible to quantify or evaluate without a broad- based education in health-related China studies. CCHH aims to provide researchers with the opportunities and training necessary to develop original projects dedicated to improved understanding and delivery of China’s Millennium Development Goals as they relate to global health.

HMED3014: History of Asian Medicine

This course aims to provide knowledge of the background and development of key concepts and practices in the history of Chinese medicine, with a secondary focus on the history of Tibetan medicine. It will describe the transmissions of these Asian medical systems and traditions to Europe and the practice of traditional medicine in the modern world. The course will give a broad historical perspective, whilst at the same time focusing on the social, cultural and political contexts of key times of medical innovation. (1/2 unit).