Traditional Chinese Medicine as an Australian tradition of health care

Deposited with permission of the author. © 2004 Dr. Rey Calingo TiquiaThis thesis is an intervention in the on-going 'conversation' between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western biomedicine. It suggests how that conversation can be improved by putting the emphasis on practices and de-emphasising mutual theoretical explanation. I consider some episodes in the one hundred fifty year history of TCM in Victoria and argue for new ways of translating between knowledge systems, proposing the idea of a 'translating knowledge space'. I elaborate ways of understanding the 'TCM body' and treatment modalities in the light of this proposal