The transformation of everyday social experience: What a mental and socialhealth perspective reveals about Chinese communities under global and local change
A. Kleinman et J. Kleinman, The transformation of everyday social experience: What a mental and socialhealth perspective reveals about Chinese communities under global and local change, CULT MED PS, 23(1), 1999, pp. 7-24
Chinese communities in East Asia are undergoing great economic and social c
hange. The result includes material prosperity but also worsening mental an
d social health indices. Epidemiological studies clarify the magnitude of t
hese problems and the particular vulnerability of women and the elderly. Et
hnographic studies indicate that moral experience is also changing, and tha
t with it subjectivity is being altered in ways that are of concern. And ye
t it is not clear, in historical perspective, how to assess these changes w
hen they are compared to the extraordinarily difficult experiences of the C
hinese over most of the Century.