Communist medicine: the emergence of TCM and barefoot doctors, leading to contemporary medical markets

Abstract

As the key components of the Communist medicine, the emergence of TCM, the promotion of the barefoot doctors program, and the rise of the national medical market were the landmark events in the social transformation of medicine in China guided and dominated by the state after 1949. During this process, the recognition of the legitimacy of TCM in the 1950s and the launching of the Chinese herbal medicine campaign in the 1960s demonstrated the state’s realistic strategies and tactics towards TCM when faced with constraints on resources and personnel. This process also indicated the decisive role of the state in improving health and medicine, including the integration of doctors and medicines in the late 1950s; the implementation of the national barefoot doctor program after 1968 and the large-scale decrease in pharmaceutical prices from the 1950s onwards.