19世纪下半叶中医药在美国的传播与华人医生经济社会地位的变迁

The Spread of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the United States in the Second Half of the 19 th Century and Changes in the Economic and Social Status of the Chinese Doctors

19世纪下半叶,在种族主义和排华的背景下,美国华人遭受医疗卫生歧视,美国主流医疗机构常常拒绝接收华人患者,因此华人不得不转向中国传统医学中医药寻求救助,中医药很快在华人社区中广泛传播。1882年美国颁布《排华法案》后,华人医生通过刊登英文广告、建立商业合作伙伴等方式成功吸引了部分白人患者,扩大了中医药的影响力。华人医生在为白人患者提供医疗服务时,将中医药从唐人街扩展到美国主流社会,他们通过提供医疗服务获得了良好的经济收益,成为华人群体中的富裕阶层。然而,华人医生因与西医医生产生了竞争关系,而成为美国医疗监管和限制的主要目标。19世纪末,美国各州不断出台限制华人医生取得医疗执照的法律,虽然华人医生通过各种方法进行抗争维护自己的权益,但也无法改变现状,中医药在美国的传播进入衰退期。

In the second half of the 19^(th) century,under the context of racism and anti-Chinese sentiment,the Chinese Americans suffered from medical discrimination.Mainstream medical institutions in the United States often refused to accept the Chinese patients.Accordingly,the Chinese Americans had to seek help from the traditional Chinese medicine,which led to the swift widespread of the traditional Chinese medicine in the Chinese community.After the United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882,the Chinese doctors successfully attracted some white patients by publishing the advertisements in English and establishing business partnerships,thereby expanding the influence of the traditional Chinese medicine.When the Chinese doctors provided medical services to white patients,they expanded the traditional Chinese medicine from the Chinatown to mainstream American society.They gained good economic benefits by providing medical services and became the wealthy class in the Chinese community.However,the Chinese doctors have become the main target of medical supervision and restriction in the United States because of their job competition with the doctors of the Western medicine.At the end of the 19 century,states of the United States continued to promulgate laws restricting the Chinese doctors from obtaining medical licenses.Although the Chinese doctors used various methods to fight for their rights,they were unable to change the status quo,inevitably resulting in the decline of the spread of the traditional Chinese medicine in the United States.