Agenda

Professor Emily Baum (University of California at Irvine) 

In 1971, acupuncture suddenly burst into the American consciousness when the New York Times journalist James Reston underwent an emergency appendectomy in Beijing and was treated with acupuncture to relieve his postoperative pain. From that point on, American fascination with the procedure continued to grow, particularly as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) widely promoted a newly-developed technique known as "acupuncture anesthesia." Recognizing the potentially broad appeal of the procedure, the CCP used acupuncture as a way to reinvigorate diplomatic relations between China and the United States and galvanize American interest in the allure and promises of Chinese communism. Its efforts to do so were only partly successful, however. Although the CCP initially hoped to use new needling technologies as a vessel through which to spread Mao Zedong Thought, Americans were less interested in the ideology associated with acupuncture than they were in its practical applications. In the end, acupuncture was ultimately divested of its communist connotations -- but succeeded in reopening channels of communication between the two countries by encouraging people-to-people exchanges and the sharing of scientific knowledge.