Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-232) and index.
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity in China during the last two decades. Qigong served a critical social organizational function, as practitioners formed new informal networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time when China was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to for-profit market medicine. The emergence of new psychological states deemed to be deviant led the Chinese state to ""medicalize"" certain forms while championing scientific versions of qigong. By contrast, qigong continues.