The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on
meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity in
China during the last two decades. Qigong served a critical social
organizational function, as practitioners formed new informal
networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time when China
was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to for-profit
market medicine. The emergence of new psychological states deemed
to be deviant led the Chinese state to "medicalize" certain forms
while championing scientific versions of qigong. By contrast,
qigong continues to be promoted outside China as a traditional
healing practice. Breathing Spaces brings to life the narratives of
numerous practitioners, healers, psychiatric patients, doctors, and
bureaucrats, revealing the varied and often dramatic ways they cope
with market reform and social changes in China.
eISBN: 978-0-231-50221-4
Subjects: Anthropology, History
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