Qigong Fever
Subtitle: Body, Science, and Utopia in China
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: February 1, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780231140669
Subjects: History; Consumer Health; History: World; Asia - China; Buddhism - General; Exercise; History / Asia; Asia - General; General; Political aspects; Qi gong; Social aspects
Description: "Qigong -a regimen of body, breath, and mental training exercises - was one of the most widespread cultural and religious movements of late-twentieth-century urban China. The practice was promoted by senior Communist Party leaders as a uniquely Chinese healing tradition and as a harbinger of a new scientific revolution, yet the movement's mass popularity and the almost religious devotion of its followers led to its ruthless suppression. In this absorbing and revealing book, David A. Palmer relies on a combination of historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives to describe the spread of the qigong craze and its reflection of key trends that have shaped China since 1949, including the search for a national identity and an emphasis on the absolute authority of science ... According to Palmer, the success of the movement proves that a hugely important religious dimension not only survived under the CCP but was actively fostered, if not created, by high-ranking party members."--Jacket.