Science, Public Health and the State in Modern Asia

This book examines the encounter between western and Asian models of public health and medicine in a range of East and Southeast Asian countries over the course of the twentieth century. It discusses the transfer of scientific knowledge of medicine and public health approaches from Europe and the United States to different Asian countries, and the local interaction with, and transformation of these public health models and approaches. It assesses the way in which scientific knowledge was used for political manipulation and economic need, challenges assumptions about the objectivity and universality of science, and surveys how public health concepts, policies, institutions and practices changed from colonial, to post-colonial and into modern times.