Registration (Click here)
L.C. Chan Memorial Lecture in Medical Humanities
Medical Humanities and Its Ramifications in China: The Expectations of “Ren” (仁)
Date: 11 April 2025 (Fri)
Time: 12:30 – 2:00 pm
Venue: Faculty Boardroom, 1/F, Daniel and Mayce Yu Administration Wing, LKS Faculty of Medicine, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam
Abstract:
This talk will explore the multifaceted dimensions of the medical humanities in Mainland China, introducing its history, content and features, and comparing it with health humanities, medical humanities, critical medical humanities, and narrative medicine in the West. “Health humanities” is a neglected term in Mainland China where it takes on very different meanings. “Medical humanities” is an all-encompassing term with different ramifications in Chinese academia, but the medical community expects it to play the sole role of training humane doctors. This divergence leads to the criticism by the medical community that the medical humanities has not linked theories with practice close enough. New terms such as “humanistic medicine” and “clinical medical humanities” have been proposed to solve the problem. However, in actuality, the instrumentality of the medical humanities is served by narrative medicine. The expectations of the medical humanities to train humane doctors have its social reasons. I trace this to the root in Chinese medicine’s expectations of “Ren” or “benevolence” in the medical practitioners.
Speaker:
Prof GUO Liping
Professor and Dean, School of Health Humanities, Peking University
Biosketch:
Prof Guo Liping is Professor of English, Dean of the School of Health Humanities and Director of the Center for Narrative Medicine at Peking University. Her research interests are in narrative medicine and medical humanities education. She introduced the concept of “narrative medicine” in mainland China and led the making and publishing the “Experts’ Consensus on Narrative Medicine in China (2023)”. She has been working closely with the Chinese medical community, advocating the importance of listening to patients’ stories and responding to them, while at the same time getting their stories out to society.
Registration (Click here)
LC Chan Memorial Lecture Rundown:
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Introduction by Prof Julie Chen (Director, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit)
Lecture by Prof Guo Liping on Medical Humanities and Its Ramifications in China: The Expectations of “Ren” (仁)
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Panel discussion on narrative in medical education and clinical practice
Discussants:
Dr TK Kong (Specialist in Geriatric Medicine; Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit)
Dr Janice Tsang (Specialist in Medical Oncology; Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit)
Prof Alex Gearin (Medical anthropologist; Deputy Director and Assistant Professor, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit)
The L.C. Chan Memorial Lecture in Medical Humanities was established through donations from friends and colleagues of the late Professor L.C. Chan in 2023 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit of Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Distinguished scholars and professionals in fields related to the practice of medical humanities will be invited to visit the Faculty and deliver the Lecture.
Tribute to Professor LC Chan
(Courtesy of Professor John Nicholls, extracted from Pathologue, the Newsletter of the Hong Kong College of Pathologists, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 21-23. May 2016.)
The Eighth Inauguration of Endowed Professorships, 2014
M B Lee Professorship in the Humanities and Medicine 李文彬基金教授席 (人文醫學) – Professor Chan Li-Chong 陳立昌