Sports, Medicine
and Immortality:
from Ancient China to
the World Wide Web
An interdisciplinary conference
exploring the history of sports, body
cultivation and sports medicine in
relation to health today.
28–29 March 2008
British Museum
Queen Mary University, East London
Sports, Medicine and Immortality:
from Ancient China to the World Wide Web
28th and 29th March, 2008
The conference runs for 2 days and
will be held at British Museum and
Queen Mary University, East London.
Day One:
Friday 28th
British Museum
£50.00
Includes private view of First Emperor Exhibition
and Evening Reception
Day Two:
Saturday 29th
Queen Mary
£50.00
Both Days
£80
www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/events
Convenors:
Dr Vivienne Lo
Wellcome Trust Centre for History of
Medicine, UCL
Professor Adrian Renton
Director of Institute for Health and
Human Development,
University of East London
Advisory Committee:
Professor Susan Brownell
Professor Susan Dilly
Kim Lavely
Jane Portal
Professor Jessica Rawson
Dr Jan Stuart
Convened prior to the Beijing Olympics, this
interdisciplinary conference explores how critical
appraisal of the history of sports, body cultivation
and sports medicine can contribute to our shared
experience of health today.
Historians, medics and sociologists will speak to three
principal domains: the health equation of games past
and future, the perfection and healing of body and soul,
and the delivery of future legacies positive in cultural
regeneration, societal cohesion, health and well-being.
Ancient regimen and techniques may seem remote,
yet the practices often attempt to resolve issues
that are common to us all. Some are directed at the
immortality or longevity of the physical body, and
include performance-enhancing nutrition and drugtaking, others train the spirit and souls for the afterlife.
Many emphasise the interconnectedness of the human
body with its environment.
Speakers will be asked to set their topic in its broad
socio-political and cultural context to facilitate a
dialogue with those who will address similar questions
for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The
conference will provide text and illustrations for a
variety of print and online publications associated with
on going projects in the run up to the
London Olympics.
Programme
Subject to changes. For latest programme see www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/events
Day One – Friday 28th
British Museum £50.00
Day Two – Saturday 29th
Queen Mary £50.00
Day 1 will be held at British Museum where the theme will
begin with longevity and immortality in the ancient worlds and
afterworlds. Setting the cultural and historical scene for the
upcoming Beijing Olympics, then the First Emperor exhibition,
then open at the British Museum, provides the perfect setting
to focus on Qin and Han China.There will be comparative
treatments from the Museum’s Greco-Roman departments
and invited specialists on ancient world sports medicine and
sporting traditions. Core to the discussants agenda will be,
how do different sporting and exercise traditions become
appropriate to changing bodies/populations?
Hosted by the World's first department of sport medicine
and in the heart of East London Day 2 will feature speakers
who will explore the modernization of ancient sporting and
body cultivation traditions as well as the all-important links
between the cultural, regeneration, health and well-being
domains of the legacy of the London Olympics in 2012. In
advance of the games it is intended that such analysis be
designed to enhance health promotion programmes and
broader regeneration design.
1 Perfecting Body and Soul in Pre-Buddhist China (Michael
Loewe)
2 Fitness and Modernity in 20 C China (Zhou Xun)
2 Daoyin among the Daoists: Physical Practice and Immortal
Transformation in Highest Clarity (Livia Kohn)
3 The Diamond Body: The Origins of Invulnerability in the
Chinese Martial Arts (Meir Shahar)
1 Animating the Body: Sense and Sensuality in Early China
(Vivienne Lo)
3 Yoga Body Beautiful: The Body as Spectacle in neo-Hatha
Yoga (Elizabeth de Michelis – for Mark Singleton)
4 Urbanisation and Stratification of Women’s Sport in China
(Fan Hong)
4 The End of Yogis (David White)
5 Physical activity in children and the future health of the nation
(Zoe Hudson)
5 Gaming, Animals and Sport in Traditional China (Roel Stercx)
6 Youth and Healthy Physical Activity (Mark Harrod)
6 ‘Homo ludens sinensis’: Kickball in Ancient China (Hans
Ulhrich Vogel)
7 Illegible Rage: Young Women’s Disorders, the Media and the
Edge of ‘Mortality’ (Angela McRobbie)
7 Athletic and Other Human Bodies in Ancient China (Ian
Jenkins)
8 Beijing 2008: “Combination of East and West” or Clash of
Body Cultures? (Susan Brownell)
8 Swordsmanship and the Socialisation of Violence in Early
China (Mark Lewis)
9 Volunteers for Science: A Medical History of the Modern
Olympic Games (Vanessa Heggie)
9 Women’s War and Sport in South Asia: The case of Manipur's
footballers (Jim Mills)
10 East London: The Legacy of the Olympics (Matt Delaney)
10 Drugs to Strengthen the Body and Enhance Performance in
Early China: Evidence from Second Century BCE Manuscripts
(Donald Harper)
11 Curing the ‘Incurable’ – A Discussion of Ancient Chinese
Approaches to the Illnesses of the Elite Found in the
Zuozhuan and the Zhangjiashan Manuscript Entitled
“Yinshu” (Jeffrey Reigel)
12 Olympic Victors’ Dark Ointment (Judith Swaddling, Adrian
Harrison & Caroline Cartwright)
13 The History of Anti-Doping at the Olympics, 1960–1976
(Paul Dimeo)
14 Neighbourhood determinants of physical activity and health:
cultural, social and historical perspectives (Karen Lock)
11 Role of the Arts and Creative Industries in Promoting Healthy
Lifestyles in Culturally Diverse Settings (Moira Sinclair)
12 Roundtable – An Integrated Approach to London 2012
(Chair: Adrian Renton, includes: Peter Hamlyn, Past Director
of Sports Medicine, Queen Mary University, London, Kim
Lavely, Chief Executive of the Prince of Wales’ Foundation for
Integrated Health, Matt Delaney, Greenwich 2012 Unit (Chief
Officer), Head of Sport Legacy and Moira Sinclair, Director
London (Development), Arts Council England)
Cover top: Hulton-Deutsch
Cover bottom: Collection of the
Palace Museum, Beijing
Sports, Medicine and Immortality:
from Ancient China to the World Wide Web
Tick as appropriate: I would like to attend
Day One £50
Day Two £50
Both Days £80 In BLOCK CAPITALS please.
Title
First name
Surname
I enclose a cheque made payable to Asian Remedies.
Position
Students are entitled to a 20% discount on application
with a photocopy of their NUS/ISIC card.
Company
For further information please see:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/events/index.html
or email [email protected]
Address
Return to: Emma Griffin, Wellcome Trust Centre for
the History of Medicine at UCL, 183 Euston Road,
London, NW1 2BE, United Kingdom
City
Address
County
Please state if you have any dietary requirements/special
requirements
Postcode
www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/events
Email