Crossings: Asian Cinema and Media Culture – serie

In Socializing Medicine, Pao-chen Tang, Yuqian Yan, and Ling Zhang explore the intersections of medicine, health, and East Asian media. Interweaving archival research, audiovisual analyses, and theoretical insights from the emerging field of health humanities, the book reveals the multifaceted ways in which the mass media from photography and film to television and live streaming has been deployed as a tool for controlling medicine and health, privileging those with power and authority from the early twentieth century to the present. Adopting anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspectives, the contributors in this volume challenge the dominant mediations of health against the backdrop of imperialism, Cold War geopolitical tensions, and neoliberal capitalism. Collectively, they advocate for alternative understandings of medical culture through media productions that envision accessible and equitable healthcare practices.