A Cross-cultural Comparative Study On Health Concept Between China And The West

Increasing a healthy life expectancy is a great concern to people who are relativelywell being. So it is just natural for people to be keenly aware of the importance ofhealth. Transmitting and sharing articles and tips for health preservation and healthcare in blog, Wechat, QQ and other social networks has become a great fashion. Infact, high speed cyber communication makes the transmission of health concepts andvarious local healing remedies reach everywhere in the world within a second.Meanwhile, international travelling greatly helped the transmission since the numberof foreigners coming to China increases year by year. However, blunders inintercultural communication in various contexts are not only but also needs greatconcern. In medical context, blunders in intercultural communication betweendoctors and patients from different countries seriously blocked medical procedure.Among the blunders, many are caused by differing health concepts of differentcountries.In this thesis, by a cross-cultural study on health concept between China and the westin the light of intercultural communication, the author intends to reveal how cultureinfluences its people’s health concept and their selection of medical procedure andhealth behavior. Hofstede’s five value dimensions, Kluckhohns’ value orientation,and Hall’s High-low context theory are applied to analyze cultural characteristics ofChinese and western people. By applying quantitative research method, the authorobserves and records the medical interviews between Chinese doctors and westernpatients, and conversation between nurses and western patients in the nursingprocedure. After transcribing the interview conversation, the author analyzes theconversations and classified them into three categories according to the causes of theconflict—health concept, health system, and health value.These different behaviors not only reflect the culture shock in the intercultural communication, but indicate that there are big differences of value dimensions, valueorientations, and context between China and the West. After combing the influenceof philosophy on health concept, and analyzing may conversations in this paper, theauthor finds out that there are both similarities and differences, the author makes aconclusion that the different health concepts are not only influenced by medicalfactors, but culture factors, the latter of which is more important.In the observation, author finds out that western patients differ greatly from Chinesepatients. Western patients tend to doubt and challenge the procedure of prolongedhospitalization after surgery. Furthermore, they show resentment when Chinesedoctors share their health condition with medical students, which is a commonpractice in big hospitals in China. Westerners are also more sensitive and adhere toprivacy. Western health behaviors not only reflect the culture shock in theintercultural communication, but indicate that there are big differences of valuedimensions, value orientations, and context between China and the West. Aftercombining the influence of philosophy on health concept, and analyzing manyconversations in this paper, the author finds out that there are both similarities anddifferences. A conclusion is drawn that the different health concepts are not onlyinfluenced by medical factors, but culture factors, the latter of which is moreimportant. Through conducting cross-cultural comparative study on health conceptbetween China and the West, we find that in medical context in China, there is highpower distance attribute in phase of medical interview. However, in surgical phase,the culture orientation is rather like that of conquering nature which is quite differentfrom traditional Chinese attribute of monochromic time orientation, which is quitedifferent from traditional Chinese culture of Taoism which underlies harmonybetween human and nature, between body and spirit. The study may help Chinesemedical personnel to be more competent in intercultural communication of medicalcontext. It may also smooth doctor-patient relationship. The research provides sometheoretical and practical references for mutual understanding in medical field andreducing stereotyping and prejudice towards Chinese traditional health concept.