Un savoir thérapeutique hybride et mobile

Abstract

The issue of innovations in TCM (zhongyi) – the Chinese medicine integrated in the public health system promoted by the post-1949 Chinese government, is approached through the case-study of the ongoing biomedicalisation of TCM research and the use of ‘evidence-based medicine’ (EBM) through clinical trials. Three points will be discussed: the first introduces a ‘plural’ medical context and a recent debate in China on the issue of pulling-out TCM from the public health‑care system involving official actors, population at large and the academics. The second focuses on aspects of research and development through the case-study of AIDS-related TCM research in China today. The last point discusses the biomedicalisation of research in TCM and its conceptualisation as CAM in a context of TCM fast-track globalisation. Therefore, such discussion raises the broad issue of the interfaces and cultural politics of knowledge.

Keywords

• AIDS
• clinical trial
• traditional chinese medicine (TCM)
• evidence-based medicine (EBM)
• medical research
• knowledge hybridisation