From the nineteenth century onwards, China faced a severe public health crisis due to the widespread threat of opium. In response, researchers at Peiping Union Medical College (PUMC) conducted pioneering experiments in the 1930s, asking: “Can opium addiction be cured?” They sought technical solutions by exploring addiction at the cellular level, aiming to uncover the physiological mechanisms behind dependence and withdrawal. Their work not only laid the foundation for early addiction treatment theories in China but also influenced practices worldwide. This paper re-evaluates PUMC’s contributions, highlighting the intersection of local innovation and global medical discourse, and offering new insights into the historical development of addiction medicine.

Meng Zhang is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (CHSTM). He previously served as an assistant professor in the history of medicine at Peking University, China. His research explores the intersection of medicine, colonialism, and East Asian history. He currently leads two major projects: a Wellcome Trust-funded research titled “The Rise of Mask-Wearing in Republican China: Colonialism, Epidemics, and Governance (1912–1949)”, and a second project examining the history of addiction science in modern China and its global network.