Colonial Medical Practices In Singapore

AY2019/2020 Semester 1

In this course, you will examine how colonial Singapore combined both western and folk medical practices in Singapore. This course will analyze the co-existence of Western tropical medicine and folk immigrant medical practices, the role of missionary nurses and doctors and their relationship to colonial medicine and policy and lastly, the course will study the use of epidemiology in Singapore during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The course will be divided into two six-week blocks, each covering colonial Western medicine and folk medical practices history respectively. By comparing the political, economic, and social changes that happened in the West and East during the same historical periods, we will be able to see how the interplay of global and local hegemonic forces shaped medical practices that we know today. The course would further examine Western and Eastern medical practices by studying the history of Eu Yan Sang and Tiger Balm and how it developed in colonial Singapore, the developments and contributions of hospitals and medical staffs-such as Tan Tock Seng hospital-and lastly, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Singapore.