Health Humanities in the Chinese Context

This book examines how cultural, societal, and linguistic factors shape health narratives and practices in the Chinese context, exploring contemporary topics such as mental health, the relationship between traditional medicine and modern health discourse, and ageing.The book offers case studies on topics at the intersection of language, culture and health, and proposes a reevaluation of traditional health paradigms by considering the diverse cultural narratives that influence human health experiences, providing readers with interdisciplinary insights into the complexities of health communication and practice.Health Humanities in the Chinese Context is suited for scholars and academics in Health and Medical Humanities, China Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Linguistics, as well as policymakers and healthcare professionals focused on Chinese cultural contexts.

Penelope Scott is an Associate Professor in Linguistics in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Acting Director of the Research Center for Culture, Communication, and Society, and co-founder of the Health Humanities Research Group at XJTLU. Her research interests include the conceptualisation of health and illness in English in Early Medieval England and in the present day, and cross-cultural models of health and illness. She has published numerous articles on these topics, including in Neophilologus, English Studies, and most recently in Topics in Cognitive Science (TopiCS).Yuexi Liu is an Assistant Professor of English Literature and Co-founder of the Health Humanities Research Group at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Her first monograph, Evelyn Waugh’s Exterior Modernism: Cinema, Satire, Comedy, was published in 2026. Her research has also appeared in Textual Practice, Modernist Cultures, and English Studies. She is currently working on two research projects: War, Memory, Ageing: Exterior Modernism at Mid-century and Chinese Modernist Satire.