The contemporary Korean ambition to globalize traditional medicine is often reported by the country's leading newspapers. A growing number of Korean doctors of traditional medicine are planning to take the licensing examination in the USA. One who passed the examination, a physician confident in his knowledge and experience, is planning to open a clinic in an American city soon; he proudly declared that Asian medicine in his adoptive country lags behind Korea by more than 20 years. Supporting this trend, another doctor argued that “traditional medicine should be Korea's leading industry in the future.” This doctor insisted that Korea should overcome competition from China through a comprehensive strategy, then play a leading role in the world market for Asian medicine, which will grow to “$250 billion in ten years, and $5 trilion by 2050.” 1 Such ambitions amount to a marked change for a nation whose history of traditional medicine remains unknown outside Korea. In addition to a language barrier, there is a methodological problem. Korean medicine has shared its textual tradition with China for more than a thousand years. The advent of Western medicine in East Asia reframed that tradition. The Japanese colonial regime (1910–1945) reformed institutional settings, prioritizing scientific medicine. Complicated by multiple origins, diverse groups of agents, and contingent opportunities and limitations, the history of traditional medicine in Korea cannot be conveyed simply by describing what Koreans have done in their own territory.
