Nashville Qi? Chinese Medicine in an American Heartland

Abstract

This article shares preliminary results from current research on Chinese medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, a city in the American South known both as “Music City, USA” and “The Buckle of the Bible Belt.” The author has interviewed dozens of patients and practitioners in Nashville to understand how Chinese medicine came to the city, what styles of practice are present, and whether or not new understandings of Chinese medicine’s fundamental concept of qi might emerge from the unique cultural setting of the American South. While Chinese medicine is flourishing in the city, because of complexities at the intersection of religion, science, and the experience of healing, the clinical encounter between patients and practitioners is not typically characterized by a mutual embrace of a language of qi.