Biomedical Odysseys

"This fascinating ethnography of global patients, the internet, and Chinese neurosurgeons experimenting with fetal cell interventions marries the existential quest for hope with China's search for wealth and power in the twenty-first century. Biomedical Odysseys is a useful provocation for China studies, medical anthropology, science studies, and medical ethics."--Arthur Kleinman, coauthor of A Passion for Society: How We Think about Human Suffering"Exploring an important and timely topic, this book is a welcome addition to burgeoning anthropological studies of the deep entanglements of online and offline worlds, fetal-cell and other experimental treatments, and the translocal networks at play in China's rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Innovative and thought-provoking, this book's ethnographic nuance is unparalleled."--Mei Zhan, University of California, Irvine"This is a breathtaking look at the experimental uses of stem cell technologies in contemporary China. Engaging, articulate, and thoughtful, Song addresses the arenas of stem cell research and experimental therapy at the edges of medicine. She helps readers understand how stem cell therapies become humanized and illustrates the poignant journeys for cures that become entangled in entrepreneurial frameworks of market medicine."--Nancy N. Chen, University of California, Santa Cruz"Song's pathbreaking ethnography interweaves China and medical anthropology with science, technology, and society studies. It details how, in the age of social media, desperately ill North Americans and a charismatic Chinese physician have helped a new field of bioscience in China emerge. Opening windows onto spheres of life and clinical care that few have examined, Song's stunning work will be influential for years to come."--Matthew Kohrman, Stanford University