Prescription for advertisements: knowledge production and legal regulations in Singapore's Chinese newspaper medical advertisements 1953–1999

• Main Author: Aw, Janna Yan Yi
• Other Authors: Florence Mok
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174462
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore has grown from a disease-laden country since post-World War II to one of the best healthcare providers in the world. The Singaporean government placed regulations in Singapore’s medical practice to achieve its current accolades. One of these was implementing the Medicines (Advertisement and Sale) Act in 1955 due to the multitude of medical advertisements in the press that were often claimed to be exaggerated or misleading. However, the implementation of the bill affected Singapore’s Chinese medical industry. Hence, this thesis questions how medical advertising regulations influenced the transformation of Chinese medical advertising and, ultimately, state-society relations from 1953 to 1999. This paper examines medical advertisements, state and public responses, and Singapore’s shift to a knowledge-based economy. I contend that medical advertisements had many unverifiable information, prompting the public to demand stricter regulations. Implementing regulations and public responses showcases underlying tensions and power imbalance between the state’s preference for orthodox medicine compared to their disregard for the Chinese medicine industry until 1994.