The Materiality of Medical Science: A History of Anatomical and Pathological Collections in China

Time: 9:00–11:00, April 7, 2026 (Tuesday)
Venue: Room 620, Yifu Building, Peking University Health Science Center

Speaker: Prof. Emily Graf (Department of Sinology, University of Tübingen, Germany)
Moderator: Associate Prof. Su Jingjing (School of Health Humanities, Peking University)

Discussants:Prof. Chen Chunhua (School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University)

Associate Prof. Chen Qi (School of Health Humanities, Peking University)

Abstract:

The collection of anatomical and pathological specimens in China became theoretically possible after the introduction of the anatomy law in 1913, yet in practice, medical scientists faced various challenges in establishing larger, permanent collections for teaching and research in medical schools. Taking a closer look at collections in Shanghai and Beijing, this talk introduces the institutional histories of three collections, as well as offering a close reading of one liver specimen, by reading it within the museum space in which it is exhibited, analyzing it in the context of the collection’s institutional history, and situating it in the biography of one medical scientist. By reading specimens within institutional, biographical, and spatial contexts, I argue that medical scientists did not solely preserve specimens in normal or pathological states, but actively produced categories of the normal and pathological through their material collections. Material specimens thus require us to understand them as the result of human donation, appropriation, alteration, and authorship, and to recognize that medical facts were not merely discovered but socially produced.

Biography:

Emily Graf is Junior Professor of Chinese Language, Literature and Culture at the University of Tübingen. She received her PhD in 2018 from Heidelberg University and was awarded a Visiting-PhD Fellowship at Renmin University of China, Beijing, in 2013. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin from 2018 to 2023. Her research interests include the history of medicine in China, Chinese literature in a global context, and exhibition practices in museums throughout China.