The transmission of Chinese medicine: chop suey or the real thing?

Abstract

The transmission of Chinese medicine has been far less successful than it could be. The reasons are to be found in the nature of Chinese medicine itself, but more importantly in the motivation of those involved in the process of transmission and reception. It has suffered by the unintegratedness of its knowledge and the fuzziness of its concepts. In the transmission process, Chinese medicine has suffered from the influence of Western medicine, but more importantly from Western expectations of Chinese medicine as a complementary health practice.