引言 Introduction

This section of the exhibition focuses on the development of the history of medical education in pre-war Taiwan, using historical images to show how people on the island of Taiwan faced disease and how they were gradually educated and treated by both traditional and western medicine.

Last summer, the Centre for Taiwan Studies at the Institute of East Asian Studies at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum was honoured to begin a collaboration with Changhua High School in Taiwan and gain access to the collection of artefacts belonging to Tomoe Takagi, an important medical educator in Taiwan. These artefacts include photographs, postcards and letters, totalling 246 items. In addition, in March 2024, the Centre for Taiwan Studies signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Taiwan Library for the exchange of digital cultural and historical resources and personnel, enabling the Centre to study the history of medical education in Taiwan through the use of rich archival images.Together with images from Taiwan's National Cultural Memory, the exhibition aims to present a diverse range of medical figures and activities in Taiwan.

The first half of the exhibition displays the enlightenment and development of traditional medicine, missionary medicine and colonial medicine in Taiwan. The second half of the exhibition focuses on the life of Tomoe Takagi, partly on his teaching and research in public health in Taiwan, and partly on his close ties with German medicine. Over the past hundred years, the interaction of people, materials, and knowledge has resulted in a completely different kind of medical care in Taiwan today.