Qigong and the Reconstitution of the Revolutionary Self-Cultivation Culture Among the Cancer Communities in China

This paper explores the transformative role of Qigong in the context of the post-Mao public healthcare sphere in China. By exploring how the 1950s-born Chinese working-class individuals redefined their lives in the face of cancer through the practice of Qigong, this article reveals that Qigong functions not merely as a mitigating force but also as a grassroots vehicle for reconciling divergent value systems precisely because it allows reworking the sediments that lie beneath each phrase of contemporary Chinese societies to be developed in different contexts. Self-cultivation emerges as a desired form of technology of self because it allows them to approximate the sense of social belonging previously emphasized and cultivated within socialist medicine. This sense of belonging encompasses the capacity to gain public recognition through collective efforts. The findings challenge the perception of socialist medicine as a bygone era, positioning it as an object of desire and mourning that still wields significant social influence. As people strive to recapture or at least approximate the collectivist forms and feelings of stability and belonging they experienced during the marketized medical regime, socialist medicine endures as a source of inspiration. Additionally, this article sheds light on the dynamic reshaping of Chinese religious practices in response to the rapidly changing contemporary society. It underscores the enduring relevance of Qigong as a healing practice and the profound impact of historical medical systems on present-day Chinese society.