Christian Conversion and the Re-imagining of Illness and Healthcare in Rural China

Bibliographic Data

ID2174774
AuthorsGubo Qi, Zhenhua Liang (0000-0003-1752-8154), Xiaoyun Li (0000-0002-7749-4948, North-West State Technical University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume15
Issue5
Pages396-413
Publication date2014-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442213.2014.948572
OpenAlexW2044595735
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited30

Faced by disparities in the fast-growing economy and the institutional weaknesses of public healthcare, poorer people in rural China have struggled to obtain effective health treatment. Christianity has played an important role in identifying and redefining the nature of this problem. The fieldwork for this article was conducted in and around a village church in eastern Henan in central China during 2012–13. The article argues that when poorer villagers' expectations of treatment encountered the special features of Christianity and its localisation in China, a mixture of cultural idioms was created through the process of Christian conversion that furnished the rural poor with new models for treatment. The spread of Christianity as related to illness treatment in rural China thus cannot be reduced to utilitarian logic for it entails the re-imagination of illness and of the nature of the healthcare system

China · Christianity · Economic growth · Economics · Health care · Political science · Rural area · Socioeconomics · Sociology · History · Law · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology

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