Negotiating Knowledge: Youth, Plural Epistemologies, and Chinese Medical Education in Taiwan

Abstract (English)

In Taiwan, the transmission of Chinese medicine (CM) has undergone a profound transformation, shifting from traditional master-apprentice models to formalised university education. Until the mid-20th century, CM was primarily learnt informally through mentorship, rooted in embodied practice and lineage-based epistemologies. Since the institutionalisation of Chinese medicine within universities – culminating in the 2011 requirement for a formal degree in order to obtain medical licensure – these two educational paradigms, informal and formal, have continued to coexist, often in tension.
Drawing on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a private clinic in Taipei and at China Medical University in Taizhong, this paper explores how young practitioners navigate between these two systems. Through observation of medical practices and different modes of transmission of CM, participant observation both in the clinic and at the university, and semi-structured interviews with students, professionals and licensed physicians, I examine how youth engage with and reinterpret Chinese medicine in ways that challenge biomedical dominance and standardisation. Rather than abandoning informal learning, many young people actively seek out non-institutionalised forms of knowledge transmission, reclaiming alternative pedagogies that value relational, tacit, and experiential knowledge.
This study highlights how educational spaces – both formal and informal – are sites of epistemic negotiation and resistance. By centering the practices and choices of young learners, the paper contributes to broader conversations on epistemic justice and the decolonisation of education. It asks how different modes of learning reflect divergent understandings of health, knowledge, and authority, and how young foreigners in Taiwan are reshaping the future of Chinese medicine by asserting pluralistic and culturally embedded ways of knowing.