This book covers the first century of China's opening-up to the outside world from 1840 and its opportunities and challenges in the adoption of science and technology, specifically focusing on modern advances in pharmacy and pharmaceutics. It demarcates the historical transformation of the traditional art of healing by replacing materia medica with that of chemical drugs, a process catalyzed by medial missionaries, ship surgeons, entrepreneurial western chemists and druggists, and, of equally importance, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) pharmacy owners. The book surveys the impact of medical and pharmaceutical technologies in Europe and the North America, including quinine, opium substitutes, santonin, laughing gas, 606, insulin, penicillin, and so on, as they introduced by medical missionaries and enterprising drug merchants to the treaty ports and urban centers in China. As a trading hub and trans-shipment center in the late nineteenth century, import houses such as A.S. Watson, Koeffer Dispensary, and Jardine Matheson served as some of the early drivers in the rapid transmission of western medicines to the East. The book also addresses the motivational factors for enterprising TCM pharmacy owners to enter the western retail and wholesale drug market. It charts the introduction of best practice management in clinical pharmacy, zero tolerance in dispensing mistakes, publication of hospital formularies, control of poisons and dangerous drugs, and the other many measures implemented by colonial pharmacists. The book presents an otherwise underrepresented understanding of this complex period of the rise of western medicines in China. It is presented as an explorative narrative rather than an analytical history to effectively tell the story of western pharmacy in China. It is distinctly a pharmaceutical history, rather than a social or cultural history. It is of interest to scholars in the history of medicine, its East-West intersections, and in the history and evolution of contemporary pharmacy, in particular.
Throughout his career, Patrick has worked in various sectors of pharmacy, including community, hospital, and industrial pharmacy. He has held senior leadership positions with global biotech and health care companies and NGOs, such as BD, Chi Heng Foundation, Monsanto, Molnlycke Health Care, Nature's Bounty, and Roche, primarily in Greater China and the Asia Pacific region.
Since 2000, Patrick has dedicated himself to independent research in the history of exotic elements of materia medica including hulu originating from the ancient Silk Roads. Over the past decade, he has focused on scholarly research concerning Western pharmacy in China's treaty ports and Colonial Hong Kong. His sixth book "A History of Western Pharmacy in China" is now launched by Springer Nature in January 2024.
Inspired by the seminal work of KC Wong and Wu Lien-Teh's "Chinese History of Medicine," which was published ninety years ago in 1933, Patrick is currently engaged in a collaborative effort with academics and practitioners from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas. Together, they are working on a five-volume series titled "Chinese History of Pharmacy: From Shennong to Tu Youyou". The series aims to provide a comprehensive account of the evolution and development of pharmacy in China throughout history.
The anticipated release of this significant series is scheduled to take place online, commencing in the second half of 2024. With contributions from experts across different regions and backgrounds, this ambitious project promises to shed light on the rich and diverse heritage of Chinese pharmacy, offering valuable insights into its ancient origins and contemporary advancements.
Patrick is the founder and president of the Hong Kong Society for the History of Pharmacy. He is a regular contributor to the Pharmaceutical Historian and serves as a senior non-resident fellow at Shanghai University.
