Research: Historiography and Lexicography of the introduction of Psychiatry in China: the contribution of Protestant Missionaries during the Pre-republican Era. (Provisional)
RESEARCH TITLE: Historiography and Lexicography of the introduction of Psychiatry in China: the contribution of Protestant Missionaries during the Pre-republican Era. (Provisional)
RESEARCH ABSTRACT:
In an attempt to map out the development of a "psychiatric thought" in the Pre-republican Era's China one cannot overlook the role played by the Protestant Missionaries, sent to China with the intended purpose to spread the Gospel among the non-believers.
It is no coincidence that in carrying forward their work of evangelisation a prominent role was granted by the missionaries to Medicine, a branch of science valued also among the Chinese as second only to the status of the literati. Considering this, the medical knowledge of the Protestant Missionaries served a dual purpose: to enter into the indigenous culture as thoroughly as possible, and to circumvent the ban imposed by the Qing government against the religious proselytising of the foreigners in China.
This context being provided, the aim of the research is to investigate the importance assumed by Psychiatry in the frame of the scientific, linguistic and cultural exchanges between China and the West, from the end of the 19th century up to the first decade of the 20th century.
In doing so, the starting point of the process will be the analysis of the source texts written by the missionaries who where recognised as most active in the process of the introduction of Psychiatry in China, including the translation into Chinese of several text books about western medicine. In particular, the work of Dr. John Kerr is of remarkable importance in this respect, having him being the first one to establish a proper psychiatric hospital in China, named John Kerr Refuge for the Insane. His translations and the related sources can be therefore regarded crucial for the present research, providing significant lexicographical material useful to outline the chinese neologisms related to the Psychiatric field in the historical period here examined.
2024 - today: PhD student at the Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali (ISO) at the Sapienza University of Rome.
2016 - 2020: Master's degree in Oriental Language and Culture at the Sapienza University of Rome.
02/2018 - 05/2018: Mobility Extra-EU Scholarship for Master's degree students at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
02/2016 - 05/2016: Mobility Extra-EU Scholarship for Bachelor's degree students at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
2013 - 2016: Bachelor's degree in Oriental Language and Culture at the Sapienza University of Rome.