Ming-cheng M. Lo. Doctors Within Borders: Profession, Ethnicity, and Modernity in Colonial Taiwan. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002.

Extract

In Doctors Within Borders, Ming-cheng Lo discusses the experience of Taiwanese doctors under Japanese colonial rule. By examining the viewpoints of colonial subjects, this work expands our understanding of colonialism in East Asia. The position of Taiwanese doctors continuously fluctuated between the colonial state, Taiwan society, and the culture of their medical profession. These doctors were ‘in-betweens’ in various ways. They received colonial education, and benefited from the Japanese rule, but at the same time they were a part of the Taiwan ethnic community. Though they enjoyed liberalism and autonomy within their professional culture, they remained subordinate to their Japanese mentors and colleagues. While they were the most modernized or ‘Japanized’ elements in Taiwan, they nonetheless engaged in social movements and contributed to the formation of Taiwan's civil society.