C6. Imperialism, Western Medical Standards, and the Interests of Medical Go-Betweens in Asia from the Cold War to the Present Chair: Eram Alam, Harvard University
Adrien Gau, University of Pennsylvania: Expertise in Transgender Chest Reconstructive Surgery Between Plastic Surgeons and Lay Activists in Taiwan, 1950s–Present
Shinyi Hsieh, National Taiwan University: Strategic Use of Imperial Power: Delayed Translation of U.S. Health Research and Feminist Critiques in Racialized-Gendered Population Discourses (1970s–Present)
Andre Rosario, Rutgers University: Foreign Body: Immigrant Professional Organizations and International Nurse Migration Policy, 2002-2008
The establishment of western medicine in non-western societies has long been considered a hallmark of modernity not only by western medical and political elites, but also by medical professionals in non-western societies who aspired to westernized medical education and care. Rather than view these actors as tools of imperialism or label them as imperialists, however, this panel reconceptualizes imperialism less as a political ideology or identity and more as a category of analysis, one that, as Paul Kramer has described, recognizes connections between the west and other societies; and, following Wen-yuan Lin and John Law, underscores the power dynamics inherent in the circulation of knowledge. This panel emphasizes the paradoxical role of medical elites in non-western societies who promoted westernized medical standards. In what ways do they relate western education, policy, and healthcare to “catching up”? What are the local pressures that ironically encourage them to renew or maintain Western models, rather than developing standards specific to their local needs?
This panel examines imperialism in three case studies of medical go-betweens across Asia and the West. First, Adrien Gau compares Taiwanese plastic surgeons training abroad to develop transgender healthcare starting from the Cold War, with present-day activists adapting American and international standards of trans medicine and health policy. Then, Shinyi Hsieh analyzes Taiwan’s ‘population quality’ debate on marriage migration with Southeast Asia, wherein a racialized-gendered hierarchy was shaped by Taiwanese physicians’ use of 1970s U.S. refugee studies; local activists embraced second-wave feminism, leading to policies transforming immigrant women into healthcare brokers. Finally, Andre Rosario follows with Filipino immigrant nurses in the U.S. in the 2000s. Leaders in the Philippine Nurses Association of America brokered connections between U.S. nursing professional organizations and Philippine central government officials to aid the Philippine educational system in meeting U.S. nursing requirements. Their participation in policymaking would aid the Philippine government, which had an explicit policy of exporting laborers such as nurses to the U.S. to send back remittances into the Philippine economy. Through these case studies, this panel studies non-western medical go-betweens to rethink imperialism, medical modernity, and westernization.
