I study qi-based holistic medicine and explore its sense of body and method of treatment, which, I show, offer alternatives to modern biomedical thinking. Qi means vital force in Chinese. The qi-based holistic medicine I examine will include Feng Shui, Tai Chi, acupuncture, reiki, and Tuina. Qi has been compared to ‘atmosphere’ in Western phenomenology, but I argue that these two are not the same. Using participant observation, interviews, diary-interviews, and drawing to collect data on people’s experience with qi-based holistic medicine, I will show that qi is more practice-based than atmosphere. I will also show that qi enables mind-body unity and a visceral account of embodied experience through practice – as opposed to atmosphere (and its associated concept ‘affect’) which presumes a partitioned mind and body and focuses on the flows ‘between’ bodies only.
Furthermore, I will reveal the personal as political by studying qi-based holistic medicine across cultures, namely Taiwan and Northeast England. I will explore how the body experiencing qi may be differentiated by gender, race, class, size, age, and dis/ability, as opposed to current literature of qi which usually only draws evidence from (East) Asia and overlooks the identity markers on bodies. I will also analyze how these identity markers might influence the way qi is experienced and thus provide new perspectives for the philosophical discussions of qi. Cross-cultural comparison will allow me to show that qi-based holistic medicine is evolving and globalizing, instead of statically ancient and confined to East Asia.
