The China Quarterly

In the second part of the book, Charlotte Furth, Ping-chen Hsiung and Judith T. Zeitlin take on the topic of cases in the medical sphere, delving respectively on the production of medical knowledge through the use of cases, the evolution of paediatrics as seen through case records and the fashioning of medical authority through the compilation and publication of an individual practitioner's case histories. [...]several threads of investigation centred on the case record genre, skilfully presented in Charlotte Furth's general introduction and upon which all contributions shed some light, bind the volume together. More startling and thought-provoking are the analyses along such lines offered by Robert Scharf and Hung-lam Chu. 1046 The China Quarterly, 192, December 2007, pp. 10181051 These developments link the book's main argument to a theme which has been receiving growing attention among scholars: the gradual rise of professional spheres of activity during late imperial times in China and the meaning of this process in light of society's evolution at the time. Franzisksa Seraphim examines the international aspects of Japan's debate over war-related responsibilities; Carol Gluck writes on comfort women; Daqing Yang discusses the issue of testimony by Japanese war veterans; Yoshikuni Igarashi looks at the image of kamikaze in contemporary Japanese culture; Ann Sherif focuses on the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and public intellectual Eto Jun; and Harry Harootunian ties many themes together centered around the tragic death in a