We continued season five by talking to Prof Guo Liping (Centre for Narrative Medicine, Peking University) and Prof Vivienne Lo (China Centre for Health and Humanity, UCL).  We had a stimulating conversation about the cross-cultural medical and health humanities and their collaborative work on film and the Chinese Medical Humanities.” Here are some messages we took away from this thoughtful conversation – and some key reasons to tune into the podcast!

Interdisciplinarity and institutions

A key theme that runs through the Conversations series is exploring the opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinarity. Guo Liping and Vivienne spoke with us about their exciting dual degree programme between their institutions in the UK and China. This presents students with an opportunity to train in an interdisciplinary way, as they are exposed to a variety of perspectives – many of which we talked about during our conversation. Guo Liping and Vivienne’s work around film, in particular, is proving fertile ground for such interdisciplinary exchange. However, we also discussed institutional challenges to interdisciplinary. Institutions aren’t always set up to run interdisciplinary programmes. They can be difficult to set up and maintain – and often become the responsibility of individual staff, rather than being really embedded in institutional structures.

Intercultural exchange

Health and medical humanities, as an interdisciplinary field, often remains orientated around Western frameworks and practices. In our conversation, and throughout their work, Guo Liping and Vivienne draw on the rich traditions of Chinese medicine, scholarship and culture which remain largely unexplored in the West. The framework of Traditional Chinese Medicine, in particular, offers a critical and decolonial perspective on healthcare which complements and deepens ongoing work in health and medical humanities.

Do tune into podcast to learn more about Guo Liping and Vivienne’s work.

Dieter and Ian