As the COVID-19 pandemic sheds light on animal markets and the traffic of wildlife in China, Liz P. Y. Chee's historical investigation of the pharmaceutical use of animal body parts in Chinese medicine is extremely useful and timely. Referring to recent works on “traditional Chinese medicine” (TCM, translated here as zhongyi), Chee shows that the production of medicinal substances (yao) is a dynamic and heterogeneous set of practices, opening spaces for innovation, experimentation, and industrialization. Her object is not so much the patenting of these substances as drugs, which is at the heart of global tensions over the standardization of TCM, but the farming practices that made animal body parts available for the pharmaceutical markets, and the controversies they raise on animal welfare and public health.
The tension between the belief in the efficacy of animal drugs, which supposedly have more vitality than plants, and the concern...
