Ruth Rogaski, Vanderbilt University

This talk explores the terrain of “Oriental Medicine” in a quintessentially American town: Nashville, Tennessee, home of the Grand Ole Opry and a birthplace of country music. The research excavates the origins of acupuncture in Tennessee and traces the personal journeys of practitioners who came to the American South from around the world. By seeing Chinese medicine embedded within this specific locale, we reveal the profound difficulty of finding “China” within the complex culture of American wellness.