Communication And Evolution:the Circulation Of Western Hygiene Knowledge In China From The Perspective Of Medium(1840-1937)

Knowledge is a problem of continuation of time carried forward in the long history river.The circulation of knowledge is also not a one-way transmission spreads in different time and space.Knowledge has different appearances,which are contradictions between new and old.At every particular historical stage,the medium has played a distinctive role in the transmission of knowledge.Therefore,medium may be seen as a vision or a thought about history.From this perspective,it seems to provide a broader way to thinking history and knowledge inheritance.Through the medium,we can connect this with other to form a society,and join the past with the present to form a continuation.Therefore,it gives a new sense that how the medium can extend new knowledge to a wider space.In short,being agree with unfamiliar knowledge is a matter of communication.Modern western hygiene knowledge is different from other knowledge.Social change has raised it to the level of social civilization,national prosperity,and ethnic survival,then completing the evolution from foreign knowledge to common sense.From the existing research results of health history,the evolution of western hygiene knowledge in modern China pays more attention to the political nature of health,or a discussion about right or wrong.It is worth thinking about,if western hygiene knowledge is placed in the process of communication,other issues will be discovered.What role does the medium play when western hygiene knowledge is contrary to the traditional knowledge system? Why do people accept this strange knowledge through medium? Is there an argument? How does the propagator of knowledge make it trusted?The main purpose of the paper is to discuss the relationship between medium environment and the production and circulation of western hygiene knowledge in Modern China.The full text is laid out in chronological order,with different medium environments as the stage,to explore the impact of medium on the spread of western hygiene knowledge.The process of disseminating western hygiene knowledge is viewed in the overall context of political change and technological development.It explains how the new knowledge is introduced into China,explores the relationship between medium,knowledge and society.According to the interpretation of medium by theory,each chapter describes the influence of different medium forms.It is divided into four parts: the translation of western hygiene knowledge input in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the establishment of western hygiene knowledge in new institutions by Protestant missionaries,the shaping of western hygiene knowledge by newspapers and periodicals,and the popularization of western hygiene knowledge by the new publishing environment.Relying on historical data,from the perspective of the medium,western hygiene knowledge has gradually become a process of common knowledge among Chinese people.Through specific discussions,it can be found that different medium present different aspects of western hygiene knowledge,which are expressed as prescription and medical environment,political views,new political practice,and code of conduct.The translations brought by the Jesuits limited knowledge to a specific class,which the content was based on Western classical medical knowledge.The new institution founded by the Protestant missionaries freed knowledge from space constraints and class limitations,focusing on water,environment and epidemic prevention.Modern newspapers and periodicals present the process by intellectual elites associating it with nationality,civilization and state,which traditional knowledge transformation synchronized with Western knowledge identification.Publications such as textbooks and visual medium popularize knowledge selected by intellectual elites and government agencies.The people eventually gained the modern hygiene common sense.In general,every new medium brings a new environment.Connecting the political and economic fators of the medium with knowledge,it will be found that the knowledge is changing.When medium history,knowledge history and social change are together,the changes make the evolution of western hygiene knowledge more clear in Modern China.The innovation of this paper is to look at the process of western hygiene knowledge production and circulation in Modern China from the perspective of medium.Firstly,through the combing of a large number of newspapers,books and other historical materials,the distribution of western hygiene knowledge in Modern China is actually a process of multiple interweaving of factors such as knowledge,medium and society.In this process,knowledge has a relationship of choice,integration,and loss.Secondly,from the perspective of medium and knowledge popularization,we can have a view at the media practice in historical scenarios and enrich the research on the health communication history.