Pain lies at the heart of clinical practice and social life in post-war South Sudan. In this talk, \Dr. Gong focuses on the history of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its transmission to South Sudan and track the unexpected transnational connections of medicine between China and Africa. In South Sudanese conceptions, pain is a composite of body and mind, clinical and existential, speakable and unspeakable, social and religious, while also defying linguistic categorization. Despite the multiple non-somatic modalities that define pain and illness for South Sudanese, they are nevertheless drawn to TCM as a quick fix – a fast-track method for coping with pain. In this process, different agents participate in the production of desires, values, and symbols related with TCM. This talk explores these contradictions and reflects on the nature of ties between China and Africa today.
