A Cultural Study Of Mental Health In Chinese Communities

The mental health needs in Chinese communities around the world are varied, but there are some unifying themes in perception, practice and unique challenges to these communities. Just like social stratification, economic disparity, urbanization or globalization, mental healthcare can also be a social lens through which to view Chinese culture. The aim of this paper is to find some insight into the cultural movers that compel Chinese people to make the expressions of agency in their families and communities.By analyzing the comments of practitioners and people from the Chinese communities in Shanghai and New York within a framework of Confucianism and Chinese Value Attitudes, Shame and Face, Ancient Chinese Philosophy and Psychotherapy, Somatization in Chinese Communities, Psychotherapy in the Context of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Family Therapy, Guanxi Oriented Psychotherapy, and Taoism and Mental Health in Chinese Communities we can more fully understand some of the fundamental underpinnings of Chinese culture in communities today.This paper is divided into 5 components:an introduction, a literature review, background information on the Chinese communities in Shanghai and New York, interviews with people in those communities, and an analysis of those interviews within the theoretical framework of the literature review.The findings from the fieldwork in this study indicate that there are, indeed, some unifying themes which exist in the Chinese communities of Shanghai and New York. Namely those are shame-avoidance, uncertainty-avoidance and integration.