Buying into Reproductive Modernity: Tracing the Transnational History of Two Contraceptives in Britain and China

Abstract

Set in the early twentieth century, this article maps the parallel histories of two popular contraceptive pessaries: ‘Wife’s Friend’ in Britain and ‘Lady’s Friend’ in China. Despite their limited efficacy, both products became commercially successful in their respective markets. Drawing on news articles and opinion columns, this article investigates how these two similar products were marketed to different demographics and adapted to meet the needs of local consumers, highlighting the ways in which medicines take on new meanings in different social and historical contexts. At the same time, the case of ‘Wife’s Friend’ and ‘Lady’s Friend’ pessaries also exposes the blurriness between the categories of Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine and the shortcomings of both types of medicine in the early twentieth century. Ultimately, this research shows that interrogating medicine from a comparative transnational perspective can yield new insights into the relationship between commercialisation, modernity and perceptions of health.