The Links Between Health and the Political Structure in New China

Recent visitors to the People's Republic of China have published a vast number of reports of different aspects of New China. In the health area, most of the reports have paid attention to specific medical and health innovations. However, few have discussed the way these innovations are brought about within the historical and political changes that have taken place in China. Some have even suggested that dramatic changes in health care, such as the introduction of barefoot doctors, can be exported to other nations.In this paper, our contention is that only by examining the barefoot doctor movement in the historical, social, and comparative contexts can we gain a better insight into its appropriateness for Western cultures. We present limited data on barefoot doctors, based on our five weeks' trip to China, in the light of concurrent changes that have taken place in other areas: education, the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, cooperative health plans, family planning, and the organization of urban areas and communes. We conclude that the Chinese concept of barefoot doctors would encounter difficulties in other cultures.