October 11, 1999 Anthropologist kicks off lecture series with talk about Chinese healing practices By Jennifer McNulty Qigong, an ancient Chinese healing practice that integrates movement and breathing, made headlines last summer when the Chinese government publicly cracked down on practitioners of falun gong, a spinoff that combines qigong exercises with Buddhist and Taoist cultivation practices. Nancy Chen Qigong, pronounced "chee-gong," is associated with a broad range of mental and physical exercises that are considered beneficial to health. Practiced by more than 100 million people, qigong was recently introduced to the U.S. public on Bill Moyers's popular PBS-TV series "Healing and the Mind." Come learn about qigong and the cultural politics of healing practices in China and the United States during a free public talk by UCSC anthropologist Nancy Chen. During her talk, entitled "The Culture and Politics of Qi (Chi)," Chen will discuss what prompted the government crackdown, and she will offer a bigger framework within which to understand qigong. Chen will discuss the rise of qigong and the intimate link between movements of breath and body and social movements. Chen will also compare the politics of medicine in China with the United States, where qigong has also become popular. A medical anthropologist and an assistant professor of anthropology at UCSC, Chen researches traditional healing, mental health, and the pharmaceutical industry. She is also interested in the continuum between food and medicine as well as the uses of science in the building of nations. Her forthcoming book "Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Psychiatry, and Body Politics of Late Twentieth-Century China," addresses the reemergence of alternative healing practices relative to state systems of medicine such as traditional Chinese medicine or psychiatry. Chen's talk is the inaugural lecture in the 1999-2000 Humanities Lecture Series, sponsored jointly by UCSC's Humanities Division and the Museum of Art and History. It takes place from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 14, at the Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. The talk is free and open to the public. A reception follows. For more information on the lecture, call (831) 459-2696 or 429- 1964. Return to Front Page