Baum Emily
Bull Hist Med. 2021;95(4):497-527. doi: 10.1353/bhm.2021.0055.
This article explores the brief American fascination with acupuncture anesthesia, a technique in which needling was used in place of, or in combination with, chemical anesthetics during surgery. In 1971, a series of American medical delegations began traveling to China to observe the procedure and gauge its viability. While some of these physicians were optimistic about the technique's therapeutic possibilities, others were antagonistic to its feasibility in an American context. Previous studies have explained the quick rise and rapid delegitimization of acupuncture anesthesia by invoking the professional interests of biomedical doctors. In contrast, this article rethinks the history of the procedure by casting it against the backdrop of the Cold War. In discussions about the legitimacy of the technique, assumptions about race, communist politics, and Cold War bipolarity were omnipresent, causing acupuncture anesthesia to become a synecdoche for the promises and perils of Chinese communism writ large.
本文探讨了美国人对针刺麻醉的短暂迷恋。针刺麻醉是一种在手术中用针刺代替化学麻醉剂或与化学麻醉剂联合使用的技术。1971年，一系列美国医学代表团开始前往中国观察这一手术并评估其可行性。尽管其中一些医生对该技术的治疗潜力持乐观态度，但另一些人则反对其在美国背景下的可行性。以往的研究通过援引生物医学医生的职业利益来解释针刺麻醉的迅速兴起和迅速丧失合法性。相比之下，本文通过将针刺麻醉的历史置于冷战背景下来重新思考。在关于该技术合法性的讨论中，关于种族、共产主义政治和冷战两极格局的假设无处不在，使得针刺麻醉成为中国共产主义的希望与危险的一个缩影。
