The Centre for the Humanities and Medicine (CHM) is collaborating with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at The University of Hong Kong to establish the Hong Kong Forum for the History of Medicine in East Asia, a collaborative project born of a mutual recognition that pooling the strengths of both institutions will significantly enhance research capacities in the field of medical history.

Specifically, the aim of the Forum is to share expertise and advance research in two key areas:

• The interactions between indigenous knowledges and Western science-based medicine

• The formation of public health institutions in East Asia

Whilst the focus is on historicizing medicine and healthcare in the region, the Forum's membership includes those with broad interests in sociology, anthropology, public health, science and technology, gender studies, postcolonial studies, and East Asia.

Through its commitment to research, the Forum seeks to promote an awareness of the historical forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, contemporary medicine and healthcare practices.

The annual Distinguished Forum Lecture, held alternately at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, provides an opportunity for introducing a wider public to the work of pioneering scholars working in related fields. The Forum Lectures will be published as part of the CHM Science, Medicine and Society series.

Past activities:
Prof Judith Farquhar visited The University of Hong Kong in October 2011. During her visit, she gave a talk on Healing and Heritage and participated in a round table session on The Folk and the Formal - Common Sense, Experience, and Official Authority in East Asia.

New Media and the Changing Horizons of Medical History: Using the Language of the Future Present to Reconceive the Distant Past a public lecture held at the University of Hong Kong on 20 January 2010.

For further information about the Hong Kong Forum, please contact
Prof Angela K Leung or Dr Robert Peckham.