462 History Series: When Resistance Strengthens Tradition • James Flowers

462 History Series: When Resistance Strengthens Tradition • James Flowers

From Qiological Podcast by Michael Max

May 26, 2026 · 1h 24m · Episode 462

About this episode

This episode explores the role of Korean medicine in cultural resistance during Japanese colonization, highlighting its connection to identity and memory.

Medicine is never only about treatment. It also carries culture, identity, and memory. Sometimes preserving a medicine is a way of preserving a people. In this episode we visit with James Flowers to explore a potent moment in the history of Korean medicine and how Hanbang became part of Korea’s cultural resistance during the Japanese colonization. Not through politics or violence, but through preserving ways of healing, thinking, and living. We discuss how medical ideas moved between Korea, China, and Japan, the role of Yangsheng in everyday life, and how Korean medicine resisted separating mind from body in the way modern systems often do. This conversation also touches on the deeper question of how medicine lives within culture—not only through practitioners and institutions, but through families, daily habits, stories, and collective memory. Listen into this conversation that weaves together history, medicine, identity, and the enduring cultural force of East Asian healing traditions.

People in this episode

Host: Michael Max

Guest: James Flowers

Topics covered

  • Korean medicine
  • cultural resistance
  • Hanbang
  • history of medicine
  • East Asian healing traditions
  • identity
  • collective memory

Keywords

  • Korean medicine
  • Hanbang
  • cultural resistance
  • Japanese colonization
  • Yangsheng
  • East Asian healing
  • collective memory

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Korea, China, Japan

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