Prescription for Nationhood: Healthcare and Ideological Transformation in the Early People’s Republic of China, 1949-1956

Abstract

This paper analyses Chinese healthcare policy and practice from 1949 to 1956 through an exploration of the role of ideology in nation-building. Inspired by Gramsci's cultural hegemony theory, this study examines the ideological control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), particularly through healthcare strategies and their political implications. The paper argues that the healthcare policy in the early years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was ideologically driven, essential not just for physical well-being but also for the new regime's stability and efficiency. Nationalism, Maoism, and Sovietisation shaped China's health policies, although the CCP's ideology also displayed a pragmatic tendency. This hybrid ideology played a vital role in the party-state's attainment of ideological hegemony within the superstructure of Chinese society in this period. Therefore, the implementation of healthcare policies thus served as both a tool for hegemony and a cultural indicator of the transformative era.