The Yellow Fever Epidemic and the Origins of Chinese Herbal Medicine in Peru, 1868–80

This paper explores the rise of Chinese herbal medicine practice during and after of the 1868 yellow fewer epidemic in Lima, the capital city of Peru. This particular epidemic contributed to visibilize a hidden underground network of Chinese medicine practitioners that provided medical care and remedies to those who could not afford conventional doctors.  I argue that growing presence of the Chinese herbal medicine in Peru −transplanted by ex-coolies from China to the coasts of the Pacific during the Age of Mass Migration (1850s-1930s)− galvanized the nascent national health system envisioned by both local professional doctors and policy makers.

I seek to demonstrate that the yellow fever epidemic played an important role in the growth and further consolidation of Chinese practitioners in the public health.  Likewise in other cities of the Pacific coast that hosted a significant number of Chinese immigrants, Chinese herbalists offered an affordable alternative of medical services to both fellow Chinese and to local population. In the years after the epidemic, Chinese healers became one of the most successful medical practitioners and formidable rivals of Western-style physicians.