Chinese Beliefs Research Articles

Facilitators and Barriers to Exercise Influenced by Traditional Chinese Culture: A Qualitative Study of Chinese Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis.

Introduction: Exercise is recommended for patients undergoing hemodialysis to decrease morbidity and mortality. However, their exercise level is lower than healthy people. Understanding reasons behind their sedentary lifestyle is required. Traditional Chinese culture may have a profound impact on patients' perceptions of exercise, particularly with regard to the relationship of overwork and kidney function and family members' attitudes toward patients' participation in exercise. Therefore, we sought to explore the facilitators and barriers to exercise influenced by traditional Chinese culture. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with 44 Chinese patients residing in Nantong of Jiangsu Province undergoing hemodialysis, aged 25 to 77 years. Interview questions focused on their perceptions of, attitudes to, and experiences with exercise. Each interview was digitally recorded and lasted from 40 to 60 minutes. Conventional content analysis was used to understand facilitators and barriers to exercise within their experience and perceptions. Findings: We found that specific Chinese cultural health beliefs informed by traditional Chinese medicine strongly affected patients' attitudes and behaviors toward exercise. Participants in this study tended to believe that overwork impairs kidney functions and viewed strenuous exercise as overwork. Although participants admitted the benefits of exercise, they rejected strenuous exercise and regarded nearly all modalities of exercise with or without facilities (except walking) as strenuous exercise. The most common barriers to exercise were lack of motivation, bad weather, negative attitudes of family members toward patients' doing exercise, and insufficient exercise information resources. The most common facilitators found in this study were their increased physical well-being and confidence from exercise. Group exercise supported by family members and positive attitudes toward obtaining exercise information were also motivators. Discussion: Chinese patients undergoing hemodialysis reported more barriers than facilitators to exercise. Perceptions and attitudes toward exercise informed by traditional Chinese culture may be hidden barriers to exercising. Our findings indicated that culturally sensitive and patient-centered exercise interventions for Chinese patients are urgently needed.

Biculturalism in couple support for diabetes care in U.S.-born Chinese Americans.

Support in couples living with type 2 diabetes is associated with better health outcomes but support provision in collectivistic cultures has received limited research attention. To address this gap, we focused on couple dynamics and support in type 2 diabetes in U.S.-born Chinese Americans. Acculturation processes, particularly biculturalism, that is, the capacity to enact habits and practices from both the heritage and U.S. mainstream culture, were explored. Employing interpretive phenomenological methods, we conducted multiple narrative interviews with each of 15 couples regarding illness challenges and couple responses. Interviews were conducted in varied contexts, including with the couple, and in group interviews with people with diabetes or spouses. The unit of analysis was the couple, and narrative themes within the text were explored within the context of holistic couple summaries. We identified three key aspects of couple support: (i) Assisting with the diabetes treatment regimen; (ii) Moderating social and contextual factors that impede diabetes care; and (iii) Providing relational care and empathy for living with this challenging chronic condition. Support reflecting cultural maintenance of Chinese beliefs and practices include other directedness, family centeredness, and concerns for harmony and balance. Bicultural support patterns were also apparent in spousal communication that was both indirect and direct, and relationships marked by both interdependence and respect for independence or autonomy, reflecting both Chinese and U.S. cultural orientations, respectively. Working clinically with second and third generation Chinese immigrants requires clinical assessment of and responsiveness to couples' acculturation levels and bicultural skills.

Discordance between lifestyle-related health behaviors and beliefs of urban mainland Chinese: A questionnaire study with implications for targeting health education.

BackgroundMorbidity and mortality in China are increasingly associated with lifestyle behaviors, e.g., smoking, poor nutritional choices, and physical inactivity. Lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases (e.g., hypertension, stroke, heart disease, lung disease) are at critical levels globally, in turn their socioeconomic burdens. Knowledge of lifestyle-related health behaviors and beliefs of mainland Chinese would help inform the design and targeting of cost-effective health education for individuals and campaigns in the interests of promoting and protecting health, and preventing disease. This study's objective was to describe the lifestyle behaviors and beliefs of a sample of urban mainland Chinese, and their congruence with evidence-based guidelines for maximal health.MethodsA cross-sectional interview questionnaire study was conducted in which 835 mainland Chinese (55% men, 45% women) from four urban areas participated.ResultsAbout half (52%) reported smoking to some degree with 21% being habitual smokers; 33% being above average weight; 62.1% met physical activity guidelines for health benefits; 92% being sedentary for 5.8 ± 3.40 h/d; 66% experiencing moderate/high stress; and sleeping 7.1 ± 1.31 h nightly with 35% reporting sleeping poorly. When standard serving sizes were considered, daily consumption of grains, fruits, and vegetables was reported to be consistent with dietary recommendations for good health, however, added salt (3.7 ± 7.42 tsp) and sugar (3.9 ± 12.99 tsp) exceeded recommendations. Life stress was rated moderate by 59.6% of respondents, with personal and family health stresses ranking highest (43% and 55%, respectively). Regarding beliefs about importance of lifestyle behaviors to health, respondents' understanding was not consistent with evidence-based recommendations. Only 64% of participants believed smoking abstinence is highly important to health; 56% regular exercise; and 37% consumption of whole grains, 62% fruit and vegetables; and 54% maintaining a healthy body weight.ConclusionTo be congruent with established guidelines for healthy living, health promotion and disease prevention education for individuals and public campaigns warrants targeting health knowledge and beliefs of urban Chinese as well as lifestyle-related health behaviors. The roles of gender, education and living rurally, on lifestyle behaviors and beliefs of the Chinese, warrant elucidation.

Breast Cancer Screening Practice and Associated Factors in Menopausal and Postmenopausal Women.

ObjectivesThis study examined breast cancer screening (BCS) practices and its associated factors among menopausal and postmenopausal women.MethodsA cross-sectional design was conducted using convenience sampling at a community center. The modified Chinese BCS Belief questionnaire was used to understand BCS practice.ResultsA total of 144 eligible women presented better knowledge and perceptions about breast cancer (mean, 11.46; standard deviation [SD], 3.65) and barriers to achieving mammographic screening (mean, 14.75; SD, 3.70). Participants aged ≥ 50 years had a negative association with the attitudes towards general health check-ups (B = −1.304, standard error [SE] = 0.65, P = 0.046). In this context, having regular physical exercise had a positive association with attitudes towards general health check ups (B = 1.458, SE = 0.06, P = 0.017), and knowledge and perceptions about breast cancer (B = 1.068, SE = 0.62, P = 0.086). Being employed had a positive associated with barriers to achieving mammographic screening (B = 1.823, SE = 0.51, P < 0.001).ConclusionsThe women had better knowledge and perception about breast cancer and fewer barriers to mammographic screening. However, attitudes towards general health check-ups were relatively poor. It is noteworthy that women who aged ≥ 50 years and had insufficient physical exercise had poor attitudes. Those who were employed had fewer barriers, and those who had regular physical exercise had better knowledge on the benefits of the BCS practice. Importantly, women who aged ≥ 50 years and lack physical exercise need education about breast cancer to increase their awareness of breast wellness.

Preaching the Gospel in China: Changes in the Concept of “Gospel” since the 17th Century

This paper focuses on the change of the meaning of “gospel” in Chinese context since the 17th Century. In the late Ming dynasty, Catholic missionaries were the first to translate “gospel” into Chinese with their writings about the Bible. Then the term became intermingled with traditional Chinese belief of seeking blessings. After the ban on Christianity imposed by the Emperor Yong Zheng, Chinese Catholics hid their faith and disguised it as Buddhism, Taoism and folk religions. At the end of the 19th century, “gospel” was connected to colonialism and became a trigger for Sino-Western conflict. The critique of and hostility toward the term abruptly arose. In the 20th century, “gospel” turned into a new concept, which went beyond its religious connotation and gradually referred to all kinds of “good news”.

The Effect of Patient Education on Chinese Adolescent and Parental Beliefs About Counselors' Breaches of Confidentiality.

The primary aim of the present study is to explore whether brief education can change Chinese adolescents' and parents' beliefs about when counselors would breach confidentiality. The two secondary aims are to examine whether the brief education (1) increases adolescents' willingness to share private information with their counselor and (2) decreases parents' expectations of the amount of information their child's counselor would divulge to them. Results showed that adolescents and parents who read a brief passage about the limitations of confidentiality were significantly less likely to believe counselors would breach confidentiality in situations where counselors reported they would not likely breach confidentiality. Regarding our secondary research aims, results indicate that education increases adolescents' willingness to share more sensitive information, such as about suicidality and drug use, but it does not change parents' expectations to have most of the information divulged to them by their child's counselor.

Scale development: Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale.

University study has been considered to be one of the most stressful periods in a person's life. University students may have irrational beliefs that could play a significant role in causing emotional disturbance. Nevertheless, a suitable instrument for measuring irrational beliefs in college students in Chinese society has been lacking. The aim of this study was to construct a culturally relevant scale for measuring irrational beliefs among university students in the Hong Kong Chinese context. The construction of the Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale (CIBRAS) for university students was based on (1) literature review and expert panel review for evaluation on content validity, (2) a pilot test of 200 local Hong Kong university students to determine the scale's psychometric properties and probe the exploratory factor analysis, and (3) confirmatory factor analysis to test for construct validity of the CIBRAS (conducted with a further 655 local Hong Kong university students). The results showed that the five-factor 19-item CIBRAS has good psychometric properties, including good internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas ranging from .64 to .80), content validity (content validity index = .96 for relevance, .94 for clarity, and .94 for representativeness), construct validity (explaining 60.1% of the total variance), and adequate fit indices (normed chi-square = 2.8, comparative fit index = .94, normal fit index = .93, non-normed fit index = .93, incremental fit index = .94, root-mean-square error of approximation = .077, and standardized root-mean residual = .074). The limitations and implications of the study were discussed.

Bridging a Cultural Divide Between Play and Learning: Parental Ethnotheories of Young Children’s Play and Their Instantiation in Contemporary China

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: The current study explored the ethnotheories of 6 Chinese families regarding their young children’s play in Shanghai, the most Westernized metropolis in China. A triangulation of multiple data sources was established through in-depth interviews, home visit observations, and 1-week recordings of child’s daily play activities. The empirical evidence revealed that the 6 families practiced eduplay (Rao & Li, 2009) with their young children, a Chinese version of play-based learning or a compromise between contemporary Western notions of child-centered play and the Chinese tradition of adult-directed academic training. Albeit with individual differences and varieties, parents’ ethnotheories were instantiated in the child’s daily settings for the provision of toys, the use of time in play and learning, and parents’ roles in the child’s play. However, some contextual constraints and barriers prevented the parents from fully putting the imported progressive educational beliefs into action. Practice or Policy: The changing and varying parental ethnotheories of play may reflect a paradigm shift in the early childhood education system, which has been jointly shaped by traditional Chinese beliefs and contemporary Western notions of appropriate practice. More implications of these findings are discussed against the backdrop of sociocultural changes in contemporary Chinese society.

Gothic Spaces and the Tropical City: reading The Crocodile Fury, Haunting the Tiger, Life’s Mysteries

Beth Yahp’s The Crocodile Fury (1992), K.S. Maniam’s Haunting the Tiger (1996), and Shirley Lim’s Life’s Mysteries (1995) articulate the ambivalence of interpreting the cultural beliefs of the Malays, Chinese, and Indians of the former Malaya with the evolving spiritual beliefs of Christianity and Catholicism influenced by British colonisation. In Beth Yahp’s The Crocodile Fury the ghosts of the colonial past vie for power with the demons of Chinese cultural beliefs in a convent situated in the liminal space between the jungle and the urban environment. The convent is a “civilised space” with the jungle as an encroaching wilderness haunted by Chinese gods and the female vampire ghost Pontianak of the Malay cultural tradition. Similarly, Maniam’s short stories in Haunting the Tiger situate the supernatural and the abject in the liminal spaces between the city and the jungle to express the metaphorical exile experienced by the Indian and Chinese diaspora in Malaysia. The trope of liminality is most evident in Shirley Lim’s short stories in Life’s Mysteries where the domestic and urban space of culture are viewed through prisms of imprisonment and disempowerment. The authors uncover the psychological and social exile experienced by colonised subjects through the gothic themes of shadows, darkness and the underworld.

Chinese Immigrant Women's Attitudes and Beliefs About Family Involvement in Women's Health and Healthcare: A Qualitative Study in Chicago's Chinatown.

Purpose: Healthcare utilization and health-seeking behaviors of Chinese American immigrant women may be influenced by longstanding cultural perspectives of family roles and relationships. An understanding of Chinese immigrant women's perceptions of family social support in health and how these beliefs manifest in healthcare utilization and help-seeking behaviors is critical to the development of culturally appropriate health interventions. Focusing on a sample of Chinese women in Chicago's Chinatown, this qualitative study seeks to describe women's attitudes and beliefs about spouse and adult children's involvement in women's health and healthcare.Methods: We conducted six focus groups among 56 Chinese-speaking adult women in Chicago's Chinatown between July and August 2014. Focus groups were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for emergent themes.Results: Women reported that their adult children supported their health and healthcare utilization by helping them overcome language and transportation barriers, making and supporting decisions, and providing informational and instrumental support related to diet and nutrition. Women viewed these supports with mixed expectations of filial piety, alongside preferences to limit dependency and help-seeking because of concern and emotional distress regarding burdening adult children. Women's expectations of the spouse involvement in their healthcare were low and were shaped by avoidance of family conflict.Conclusion: Findings inform opportunities for the development of culturally appropriate interventions to enhance Chinese immigrant women's health and healthcare. These include patient navigation/community health worker programs to promote self-management of healthcare and family-centered strategies for enhancing family social support structures and reducing family conflict.

Breast cancer screening behavior, attitude, barriers among middle-aged Chinese women in Macao, China.

Breast cancer is the third leading cause of death from cancer among females in Macao, but little is known about local practice of breast cancer screening. The study aims to evaluate breast cancer screening behaviors and to identify the predictors of insufficient knowledge and attitudes towards breast cancer and its screening among female residents. This was a cross-sectional study conducted from April to June 2016 in Macao. Quota sampling of women completed the modified Chinese Breast Cancer Screening Beliefs questionnaire (CBCSB) to assess their breast cancer-related perceptions, screening attitudes and behaviors. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to identify the predictors of poor-screening practices, attitudes, knowledge and perceived barriers to mammography. A total of 417 women (mean age±SD: 50.5±5.7) completed surveys, with 160 (38.4%), 196 (47.0%) and 103 (24.7%) women received breast self-examination, clinical breast examination and mammography as recommended, respectively. Nulliparity (OR=2.56, 95% CI = 1.14-5.73) and low education (OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.04-2.84) were significantly associated with negative attitude towards health check-ups. Women did not know anyone with breast cancer (OR = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.50-3.55) were more likely to have insufficient knowledge about breast cancer. Low education (OR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.25-3.04) and not knowing anyone with breast cancer (OR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.31-3.13) were identified as predictors for perceived barriers to mammography. Recommendations for breast cancer screening are poorly followed by the residents in Macao, and a culturally tailored educational program is urgently needed to raise the public's awareness of the disease and the screening practices.

The Modern Origins of China’s South China Sea Claims: Maps, Misunderstandings, and the Maritime Geobody

This article offers a new account of the development of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. It argues that a collective Chinese belief in a “historic claim” to the reefs and rocks therein emerged in distinct episodes during the first half of the twentieth century, partly in response to perceived threats to the country’s sovereignty but mainly as attempts to shore up declining nationalist legitimacy. It situates the claim within efforts by Chinese intellectual and state elites to construct a national “geobody” in the first decades of the twentieth century. It argues that this was not a process of documenting a preexisting claim but of imagining and asserting one through the mobilization of both emotion and archival documents. Moreover, this account emphasizes the importance of the acquisition of knowledge from foreign sources and the confusion that entailed. The legacy of this confused claim-making shapes South China Sea geopolitics today.

Chinese Culture and Soft Power

China’s spiritual gap has to date largely been met by a combination of Christianity and traditional Chinese belief systems. Both present challenges to the Communist Party.

Chinese Cultural Beliefs: Implications for the Chinese Learner of English

Chinese Cultural Beliefs: Implications for the Chinese Learner of English

Folklore in China: Past, Present, and Challenges

This article first outlines the long history of folklore collection in China, and then describes the disciplinary development in the 20th century. In Section 3, it presents the current situation in terms of disciplinary infrastructure, development, contribution, and challenge, with a focus on the recent practice of safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage. These accounts are largely based on the views of the Chinese folklorists. In the final section, this article discusses the issues of cultural continuity, integration, and self-healing mechanisms in Chinese culture by putting Chinese folkloristics in a historical and world perspective. This paper suggests that, to understand Chinese folklore and culture, one must be aware of the most basic differences between Chinese fundamental beliefs and values and those of theWest, and that Chinese folklore and folkloristics present new challenges to the current paradigms put forward in the post-colonial, post-modern, and imperial ideologies.

Chinese mothers’ profile which values both play and academics predicts better developmental outcome in young children

Parental beliefs about play and learning are part of the “belief-context” of early childhood development and can thus make a key difference for the child. Previous studies have focused on cross-cultural comparisons, and therefore have neglected intra-cultural variations. This study sampled 163 Chinese mothers with children aged two to four years old (M = 38.73 months, SD = 4.91) in south-eastern China, using the Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale, Home Play Activities Questionnaire and China Developmental Scale for Children. The latent profile analysis identified the three profiles of Chinese mothers: (a) Traditional mothers, who placed higher value on pre-academic activities, but lower value on early play; (b) Contemporary mothers, who placed higher value on early play, but lower value on pre-academic activities; and (c) Eclectic mothers, who placed the highest values on both pre-academic activities and play. The three profiles of mothers’ play beliefs were differentiated by maternal education, frequencies of children’s play and pre-academic activities at home, and children’s early development. Children of Eclectic mothers had better cognitive development than those of Contemporary mothers, and had better socio-emotional and overall development than those of Traditional mothers, even after adjusting for socio-demographic variables.

Validating the Scale Measuring Dysfunctional Parenting with Hong Kong Adolescents

Dysfunctional parenting in situations requiring discipline is an important issue in Hong Kong. However, few scales for measuring dysfunctional parenting have been validated in the local context. The current study validated, with a sample of Hong Kong adolescents, a dysfunctional parenting scale that has been widely adopted in the West. A total of 965 adolescent students (males 43.3%, mean age 14.6, and range 12–18) were recruited for this study. Principal component analysis with varimax rotations and Tucker’s congruence coefficient were adopted to examine the factor structure of the scale and its stability. Cronbach’s alpha and correlation analysis were used to assess the internal consistency and the convergent and divergent validity of the scale and of each subscale identified. Three stable factors (laxness, overreactivity, and verbosity) were extracted, and their individual items demonstrated good internal consistency. The convergent and divergent validity of the scale (and subscales) were confirmed by its positive association with the material hardship of the families, the parental stress, and the antisocial behavior of the adolescents, their haughtiness and loneliness, and by its negative association with the adolescents’ social skills. Unlike previous studies that investigated parents’ rearing of young children, where verbosity was not detected as a significant factor, in adolescents, verbosity was detected as a factor affecting discipline. For adolescents in Hong Kong, verbosity is shown to be a dysfunctional parenting behavior; this is also true of Western adolescents but differs from traditional Chinese cultural beliefs.

Parents’ play beliefs and engagement in young children’s play at home

ABSTRACTPlay is a fundamental concept in early childhood development and education. As partners in the child’s learning, parents play a crucial role in how play is defined, valued, and practised. The present study explores the constructs of parents’ beliefs about and engagement in young children’s play in two coastal cities in China. A sample of 483 parents of children aged two to four years (M = 36.48 months, SD = 4.86) completed a newly developed instrument, the Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale (CPPBS), to assess their beliefs on play, and two other scales to report on the parents’ and children’s play engagement at home. Factor analyses confirmed two factors in the CPPBS – Play for Learning (PL) and Play for Fun (PF). Mediation models found two patterns of parental engagement in children’s play: parent involvement mediated the relationship between their PL beliefs and children’s engagement with (pre)academic-related play, but did not mediate the relationship between their PF beliefs and children’s engagement with entertainment and fantasy play. This finding indicates Chinese parents might support young children’s play as teachers, rather than as playmates.

Chinese pre-service teachers' beliefs about hypothetical children's social withdrawal and aggression: Comparisons across years of teacher education

This study examined Chinese kindergarten pre-service teachers' beliefs about hypothetical children's problematic behaviors with peers. Pre-service teachers responded to depictions of children displaying social withdrawal (shyness and unsociability) and physical aggression (for comparison). Among the results, pre-service teachers perceived aggression as the most problematic behavior, followed by shyness and then unsociability. Results suggested that pre-service teachers in later years of the program were able to make fine-grained distinctions between subtypes of social withdrawal. Our research lends support to the notion that pre-service teachers' beliefs may be susceptible to change. Results are discussed in terms of pedagogical development and cultural context.

Chinese Lineage Organization and Folk Beliefs

Chinese Lineage Organization and Folk Beliefs