Kan-Wen Ma was a distinguished authority on the history of Chinese medicine. In China, he is credited with establishing the term “traditional Chinese medicine” (TCM) for the treasure house of knowledge that exists in ancient texts. He introduced Western audiences to a wider understanding of the antiquity of TCM and the complex and subtle contributions of its practitioners. His special academic interest was comparisons between traditional Chinese medical thinking and European and Islamic medical thought from the earliest times. In his lifetime, he published or edited 12 books and 160 academic papers despite suffering and having his career blighted by the chaos of the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s and 1970s. Few academics could have experienced the vicissitudes of life in 20th century China and created not one, but two successful careers, first in Mao’s China and later in the more peaceful environment of the University of London. Towards the end of his life, at UCL, he was working to complete a wide ranging study of the interaction between the Western medical missionary movement in China and traditional Chinese medicine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Kan-Wen Ma was born in Beijing in 1927 into a family who numbered traditional physicians among its members. His father was head of a secondary school in Beijing. He was at school when the Japanese invaded China in the 1930s. This made home life challenging and studies difficult, but in 1945 he gained entrance to the elite Yenching University, where he studied history and philosophy of science. Yenching, founded by Christian missionaries and funded through American philanthropy, offered a Western style university education. He became fluent in English and appreciative of British and American culture, …