Between Medicine and Gift

Abstract

Tibet’s wild fungus cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), a prized commodity in metropolitan China, has been undergoing changes in the way it is traded and marketed in Tibet. Prized as a medicinal tonic and high-value gift, the parasitic fungus has traditionally been traded in its dried form. However, in recent years we have observed the emergence of trade in fresh cordyceps. This paper seeks to make sense of this change in the form of this commodity and its correlation to changing meanings of cordyceps in China. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Tibet and textual analysis of online markets in China, this paper argues that this transformation is associated with China’s anticorruption campaigns, the rising importance of e-commerce infrastructures, and the biomedicalization of cordyceps through advancing biotechnologies. In addition, we argue that professional brokers play a key role in the emergence of the fresh cordyceps trade.