What does it mean to live well? What does it take to thrive in a world where rapid development and structural inequality can often hinder the pursuit of health?

This conference will explore the search for well-being in contemporary China, and the sometimes unexpected forms that this search has taken.

Instead of assuming mind, body, and the social and natural environments as separate entities or fields of inquiry, the presenters at this conference examine the ways in which they are deeply entwined and creatively refigured. This will come through four points of entry: Tradition and Innovation in Medical Practice, Psychology and Spirituality, Health as Social Phenomenon, and Technology and Health Infrastructures.

Hear the original, and sometimes radical, methods by which Chinese health practices have been reshaped and redefined in response to contemporary conditions, challenges, and desires.

SCHEDULE

9:00 – 9:15AM. Welcome and Introduction

9:15 – 10:45AM. "Tradition and Innovation in Chinese Medicine"

• "The Twentieth-Century Context of the Work of Gia-Fu Feng at Esalen," by Ruth Rogaski (Vanderbilt University)
• "The 'Spirit' of Chinese Medicine," by Mei Zhan (UC Irvine)
• "Alternating Models of Rural Public Health: Rural people’s interaction with a system in transition," by Miriam Gross (University of Oklahoma)

11:00AM – 12:30PM. "Psychology, Spirituality, and the Search for Wellness"

• "In Pursuit of the Good Life," by Li Zhang (UC Davis)
• "Superstition, Popular Religion, and the Transformation of Chinese Medicine in 1950s China,” by Emily Baum (UC Irvine)
• "Desire with Chinese Characteristics," by Sonya Pritzker (University of Alabama)

12:30 – 2:00PM. Lunch Break. Food will be provided for panelists only.

2:00 – 3:30PM. "Self and Other: Health as Social Phenomenon"

• "Being Together in Shanghai: Self-Experience and Psysociality in a Legendary Psychotherapy Training Course," by Hsuan-Ying Huang (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• "Between the universal and the particular: Engaging the logic of systemic therapy," by Teresa Kuan (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• "The Fever With No Name: Genre-blending Responses to the HIV-tainted Blood Scandal in 1990's China," by Marta Hanson (Johns Hopkins University)

3:45 – 5:15PM. "Technology and Health Infrastructures"

• "The Sociopolitical Logics of Yinao: Routinizing Violence in Chinese Hospitals," by Priscilla Song (University of Hong Kong)
• "Winning the 'Second Chance': Prenatal genetic testing, personal choices and national future," by Zhu Jianfeng (Fudan University)
• "From the sanitary to the ecological city: Managing waste in post-reform Guangzhou," by Amy Zhang (New York University)

5:15 – 5:30PM. Closing Remarks

Photos: Italo/Flickr (left); Joe deSousa/Flickr (middle and right).