# The Drifting Autumn Leaves · A Cultural History of Tuberculosis

Author: Yu Fenggao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: This is a disease of the poor, yet also a disease of the rich; it is favored by the royal families of monarchies, who have visited the scenes on more than one occasion, and it is also valued by the revolutionary leaders of the proletariat, who conduct in-depth investigations. What is particularly interesting is that it is even recorded as a special aesthetic object in various historical records. There, people read that realist writers use its depiction to reveal and curse the social system that causes poverty, while romantic composers sing the Bohemian lifestyle through its portrayal. There, people also read that some view it as "ugly" and avoid it for fear of its connection to death, while others revere it as "beautiful" and long for the joyous of a melancholic death. From this perspective, compared to other diseases, tuberculosis indeed has a richer cultural background.