The Barefoot Doctor:the Reflection Of An Era

Barefoot doctors were active in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century and declined in the 1980s. Barefoot doctors are the outcome that Chairman Mao put the emphasis of health care in rural and are also the effective means to solve the shortage of doctors and medicine in the country. It is the dominant force of the medicare service in the vast rural area after the establishment of a new China, which has been widely publicized and confirmed and which has been widely forgotten after the reform and open. Native barefoot doctors play a key role in the health care reform. In order to promote the health care policy of barefoot doctor, our nation gives a series of requirements, however, with the requirements, the villages tend to add their own considerations in the selection of barefoot doctors. In villages, the selection and work of barefoot doctors are restricted by the rural society and are also the reflection of the country’s condition. To become a barefoot doctor is not only satisfied with the one’s own desire but also coordinated with the relationships in rural. Which is to say that the outcome of barefoot doctors is not only the product of national policy but also the result of country life and villagers’own choice. Barefoot doctors are the other reflection of the rural society.Based on part of the barefoot doctors in Yushe county, using the interview data in field study and existing files in the archive of Yushe, this thesis wants to explore the selection and adaptation between the national policy and the country’s condition with the selection of barefoot doctors, job role, medical skill, relationships in rural and changes in the reform. Via this, we hope to see the ignorance of the details of the barefoot doctors in the past and to develop a deep understanding of the role of barefoot doctors in rural medical system and rural society.The rise and fall of barefoot doctors have a close connection with the time passing. They are the memory of time and the sight of the era’s back. They have existed, selected, struggled and strived in the history. What they have experienced deserves to be explored and engraved on our minds.