Making Modern Pharmaceuticals and Localizing Pharmacy Sciences in Sichuan, 1932–1945

Abstract: This article examines the localization of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences in Republican China, particularly during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). At the Department of Pharmacy at West China Union University in Sichuan, Chinese and missionary scientists collaborated to adapt scientific pharmacological methods for the study of local medicinal materials. Rather than representing simple knowledge transfer, this work embodied a complex localization process characterized by epistemic parallels, in which multiple systems of pharmaceutical knowledge coexisted and informed each other. Western-trained Chinese scientists adapted scientific methods to study Chinese medicinal ingredients while simultaneously leveraging these materials’ physical presence and local origins to align their work with wartime nationalism. This dual process created a distinctive Chinese scientific pharmacy that merged modern scientific methods with the cultural and political significance of indigenous medicinal materials. This article contributes to our understanding of knowledge transfer and scientific development in non-Western contexts during periods of national crisis.