History

In 1926, Professor Robert K. S. Lim, the head of the Department of Physiology at Peking Union Medical College, created CAPS with Professor Hsien Wu, the head of the Department of Biochemistry, and Professor B. E. Read, the head of the Department of Pharmacology.

After the war began in 1937, Professor Hsi‐Chun Chang kept working on the "Chinese Journal of Physiology." After the start of the Pacific War in 1941, the journal had to stop publishing until it continued in 1948.

Professor Chiao Tsai, head of the Department of Physiology at the Central University Medical School, which had moved to Chengdu, worked with Professor Kilborn, head of the Department of Physiology at West China Union University Medical School, to create the Chengdu Branch of CAPS. They kept up their academic activities and published newsletters with academic papers.

A meeting was held in Beijing in 1950 to get ready to restart CAPS and start publishing the journal again.

As the number of fields like physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology grew, the "Chinese Society of Physiology" was renamed the "Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences (CAPS)" at the 13th National Congress of Members in 1956. In the 1980s, CAPS led to the creation of five national professional societies.

On June 21, 1980, two representatives from IUPS, Secretary General Kovach, and the Chairman of the Admission Committee Thurau, came to Shanghai. There, they signed an important agreement with two Vice-Presidents of CAPS, Te-pei Feng and Chih-Chin Wang. This agreement is called the Shanghai Memorandum. The memorandum explained that, under the one-China principle, there are two groups under the IUPS in the name of China: The Chinese Physiological Society located in Beijing and the Physiological Society in Taipei. Since then, our society has officially joined the IUPS.

In 1990, CAPS officially joined the Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS). At that time, Academician Xiong-li Yang, who was the Vice President of CAPS, was elected as the vice chairman of the council.

The Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, hosted the congress as CAPS had requested. Academician Xiong-Li Yang was the Chairman of the Organizing Committee. The conference was attended by 540 scientists from 26 countries and regions. Nearly half of the participants were scholars from Mainland China and the Hong Kong and Taiwan regions. The event was well-received by participants from around the world.