Being Towards Death,the Daily Life Of Cancer Patients

This paper aims at describing the practice of cancer patients in recognizing and treating diseases in the process of practicing Qigong,trying to understand the meaning of their behavior from their own point of view,and presenting their daily life as well as possible.I spent nearly half a year doing fieldwork in Nanjing and Beijing.During this period,I stayed with cancer patients to learn and practice Qigong and to observe their daily life.Based on the fieldwork study,this paper presents the current situation of the development of Guo Lin New Qigong in China and interprets why patients choose more than one way to cure the disease.Such practice is also known as 'Medical Pluralism',and Guo Lin New Qigong plays a role of alternative medicine in it.By insisting on long term practice,cancer patients try to have full control over their fate,and gradually strengthen their belief of Guo Lin New Qigong during the process of conducting two discourse systems between Western medicine and Qigong.Disease causes patients to be excluded from the mainstream society.On the one hand,daily treatment has become the focus of their lives,and they spend most of time going to the hospital and the park where they practice Qigong.In addition,their social roles in family and at work have also undergone tremendous changes.Most patients cannot participate in social life like healthy people.Due to the special nature of cancer,patients are labeled as "dead" and suffer the pressure of stigmatization.Under such pressure,they began to rethink the meaning of life and adapt to the new life.During the process of fighting against the death,they actively "save themselves" and reshape the life itself.As a conclusion,this article aims at eliminating stigma for patients and showing that practicing Qigong is a kind of behavior for cancer patients to face life and disease with a positive attitude and explore new meanings of life.Meanwhile,Guo Lin New Qigong is actually a kind of quasi-religion practice.In this sense,it can provide new practical guidance for the services of palliative care.