Cross - Cultural Communication Of Traditional Chinese Medicine From The Perspective Of Anthropology

To the West, Chinese Medicine(CM) as a traditional medicine is an “other”; to us, the researcher and reader of the cross-cultural communication of CM, the West is an “other”. What are the current state of the “other”(CM) in the “others’ ”(western) society? What are the situation and problems in the cross-cultural communication of CM?Applied theories and methods of Communication and Anthropology, based on ethnographic materials gathered from field work in the UK and related references, this essay investigated clinical activities, education, professional associations, commercial operation, political circumstance, etc., to discover the adaptation and changes of CM in the interaction with the “others’ ” society, to analyze the rules, features and obstacles in communication, and to offer a theoretical and empirical investigation basis for promoting the cross-cultural communication of CM.These anthropological observations indicated that the cross-cultural communication of CM is very complicated cultural interactions and political encounters. In the UK, CM is the supplement of National Health System co-existing and competing with other alternative medicines. It’s mainly practiced as acupuncture, which is active as an oriental, exotic, natural, ancient medical craft, either in the areas of clinic or education. This shows the construction of local ideology like post-modernism and “orientalism” and the negotiation and adaption of both “other” in the process of cross-cultural communication. The difficult legislation of CM in the UK exposes the weakness of political position of CM in “others’ ” society and the complicated political struggles among many interest groups. From the aspect of cross-cultural communication, this research suggests that, in the communication of CM in the UK, the obstacles are still immense, the system is not complete, the tools are simple, the communication capacity is limited, and the “de-Sinofication” is obvious. The proposals are made as that, applying the concepts of Communication and multi-disciplines, accomplishing the system to run as a huge systematic project, crating more means and increasing the capability of communication, conducting the cross-cultural communication training and envaluing talented people, developing the domestic CM to support the abroad CM, operating as government-leaded projects to enhance national cultural soft power, contesting for supremacy and intellectual property rights in the worldwide CM areas.