Asia Institute - Theses
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ItemCommunication, narrative and risk: expatriate treatment narratives in Kunming, China( 2011)While studying Chinese in Kunming, China, in 2009, I noticed that anecdotes about experiences in the local biomedical health care system generated a lot of discussion amongst expatriates, and formed the basis for some kind of solidarity between them. This thesis takes a closer look at what I had observed informally, to see what these stories reflected about expatriate perceptions of the Chinese health care system, and what these stories suggest about the nature of being an expatriate. Three central themes emerged from interviews with expatriates about their experiences of seeking medical treatment in Kunming – communication, narrative and risk. Unmet expectations about doctor-patient communication in the medical setting were often associated with unsatisfactory episodes of treatment, and were major elements in expatriates’ perceptions of their health care experiences. Expatriate encounters with the healthcare system were often the foundation for stories, or ‘narratives’, and this thesis looks at how these narratives are formed, and the role they play in the expatriate community for the storyteller and the listener in creating a sense of shared identity and experience. Finally this thesis examines the concept of risk, and how interviewees determine what is risky in an unfamiliar environment. Often these perceived risks are different to what they would be in the interviewees’ home countries. These three elements – communication, narrative and risk – are all interwoven into the ‘treatment narratives’ the expatriates in this thesis offer.