Duoyuan xiangqian yu chuangzao zhuanhua: Taiwan gonggong weisheng bai nian shi 多元鑲嵌與 創造轉化：台灣公共衛生百年史 [Diverse Embeddedness and Creative Transformation: A Century of Public Health in Taiwan] ed. by Fan Yen-Chiou 范燕秋 (review)

The history and development of public health have attracted a growing scholarly interest. Numerous studies have examined the role of the state, its motives, and the formulation of policy. Fan Yen-Chiou, a historian specializing in colonial medicine, has previously worked on Japan's role in shaping and modernizing Taiwan's public health infrastructure in the first half of the twentieth century. Taiwan's experience of colonial modernity is considered unique: Japan intended to turn its first colony into a showpiece of modernization. Diverse Embeddedness and Creative Transformation: A Century of Public Health in Taiwan comprises twelve chapters contributed by researchers from Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. While addressing different topics, all these studies tackle the dynamic interactions among multiple players (always including the state) in formulating public health initiatives during the colonial period and its aftermath.

In the first chapter, "Quarantine, International Relations, and East Asia," Wakimura Kohei 脇村孝平 compares the quarantine policies adopted in East Asia in the late nineteenth century and the period between the two world wars. Wakimura finds that before the fall of the Qing, fairly lax quarantine policies were implemented in China and Japan, which were developed for the sake of securing commercial interests of elite groups and Westerners. At that time, the Qing had only very limited tools for combating infectious diseases, and though Japan hoped to enact more rigorous quarantine measures for the general public, these were opposed by the Western powers because of concerns of potential restriction on trade. In contrast, during the years between the two world wars, China and Japan took control of their own quarantine policies. Wakimura concludes that the changes they brought about emerged from multiple factors, including the restructuring of international powers, the region's changing politics, and the impacts of a series of major epidemics at the turn of the twentieth century. This study illustrates the importance of incorporating wider contextual factors, setting political and economic issues in a global context to understand the formulation of domestic health policy.

In "Colonial Modernity and the Sanitary Police in Korea," Jung Keun-sik 鄭根埴 studies the changes in administrative structures and policy implemented by Korea's sanitary police. He concludes that this institution played a pivotal role in exerting governing power—not only in the colonial period but also in the aftermath of the Korean War, when international power relations underwent a rapid restructuring. Jung provides abundant historical data and describes the activities of the sanitary police in great detail. This study is informative, but it could be improved by adding an analytical framework and some comparisons with other nations.

In "A Historical Study of Cinchona Cultivation and Antimalaria Drugs in Colonial Taiwan," Ku Ya-wen 顧雅文 describes cinchona cultivation in Meiji Japan (1875- 1911) and colonial Taiwan (1895-1945). Ku's study indicates that in early years cinchona was viewed as a profitable cash crop, in later years as medicinal plants, and during the war years as the source of antimalaria drugs that made a critical contribution to the soldiers' health. By focusing on cinchona, Ku reconstructs a marketable product in the changing dynamics of the state, the market, and the health needs of different populations. But without providing information concerning malarial infection rates and disease control policies, Ku has made it hard for the reader to fully comprehend the dynamics of cinchona cultivation and malaria control.

In "Digenea: A Medicine for Ascariasis," Chang Su-bing 張素玢 examines the ascariasis pandemic that took place in Taiwan from 1921 to 1945, explaining how digenea, an ancient herbal medicine, became the preferred treatment. Chang also explains why the efforts of the colonial government to curb widespread ascariasis failed, in spite of a sufficient supply of digenea. In her effort to explain the causes of the epidemic, the author mentions...