Memorial Ceremonies for the Dissected Dead in Beijing Since 1915.

Abstract

This article compares Chinese ritual ceremonies for the dissected dead in Beijing in the Republican period (1912-1949) to those dissection ceremonies introduced to mainland China and Beijing in the 2010s from Taiwan. Previous studies have only examined the recent (re)birth of ritual ceremonies starting at Tzu Chi University in Hualien, eastern Taiwan. When advocates for anatomical medicine proposed an anatomy law in 1912 they recognized the necessity of incorporating a solemn annual anatomy ritual to placate opposition from the public and to ensure respect for the remains of the dead from nervous medical students. This article explores the traces of anatomy ritual in Beijing in its first incarnation at the National Medical School from 1913-1949, the apparent disappearance of these rituals in the Maoist (1949-1976) and post-Maoist period, and the return of anatomical ritual a century later when the Health Science Center of Peking University began to borrow rituals from Tzu Chi University in Taiwan with little awareness of the institution's own long history of anatomy ritual.